
Stratford House, General Lee's Birthplace. 



12 



THE LIFE 



OF 



GEN. ROBERT E. LEE, 



FOR CHILDREN 



IN BASY WORDS. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH COLORED PLATES. 



MRS. MARY L \A/^lLLlAMSON. 



THE BAUGHMAN STATIONERY CO. 
Richmond, Va. 







Copyright 1895, 
By Mrs. MARY L. WILLIAMSON. 



TO 

THE CHILDREN 

WHOSE FATHERS WORE THE GREY 

I DEDICATE 

THIS LITTLE BOOK. 



PREFACE. 



This is undoubtedly the "Children's Age." Everything 
possible is being done by parents and educators to interest 
and instruct the little ones. 

We can find no better way to advance primary education 
and to impress upon children principles of morality than to 
place before them, in interesting story, the careers of our 
great men. 

To this end I have written these simple annals of our 
greatest hero. Our school histories make only brief mention 
of him; and histories of his life written for grown folks are 
too difficult for the average child to comprehend. So I 
trust that this little book will meet the imperative need of 
the times, and imprint indelibly upon the minds of the rising 
generation the noble character and wonderful deeds of Robert 
E. Lee. 

In compiling this work, I hav^e consulted General Fitzhugh 

Lee's "Life of Lee" and Rev. J. William Jones's "Personal 

Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee." 

M. L. W. 
June 26, 1895. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER I. 



BIRTH AND YOUTH. 



RoB-ERT Ed-ward 
Lee was born at Strat- 
ford, West- more- land 
coun-ty, Vir-gin-i-a, on the 
19th of Jan-u-a-ry, 1807. 

His fa-ther, Gen-er-al 
Hen-ry Lee, had been a 
great chief in Wash-ing- 
ton's ar-my. They 
s o m e - 1 i m e s call him 
*'Light-Horse Har-ry 
Lee." While with 
Wash-ing-ton, he was 
ev-er in front of the foe, 
and his troop-ers were 



what they al-ways should 
be — the eyes and ears of 
the ar-my. 

Af-ter the war he was 
Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a, 
and then a mem-ber of 
Con-gress. It was he 
who said in a speech 
made be-fore Con-eress 
af-ter the death of Wash- 
ing-ton, that he was 
''First in war, first in 
peace, and first in the 
hearts of his coun-try- 
men." He al-so said, 



8 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



"Vir-gin-I-a is my coun- 
try ; her will I o-bey, how- 
ev-er sad the fate to which 
it may sub-ject me." 

His moth-er was Anne 
Hill Car-ter, who came 
from one of the best 
fam-i-lies of Vir-gin-i-a. 
The long line of Lees 
may be traced back to 
Laun-ce-lot Lee, of Lou- 
don, in France, who went 
with Wil-liam the Con- 
quer-or up -on his ex- 
pe-di-tion to Eng-land ; 
and when Har-old had 
been slain up-on the 
blood-y field of Hast- 
ings, Laun-ce-lot was 
given by Wil-liam the 
Con-quer-or an es-tate in 
Es-sex. From that time 
the name of Lee is ev-er 



an hon-or-a-ble one in the 
his-to-ry of Eng-land. 

In the time of the first 
Charles, Rich-ard Lee 
came to the New World 
and found a home in 
Vir-gin-i-a. He was a 
man of good stat-ure, 
sound sense, and kind 
heart. From him the 
noble stock of Vir-gin-i-a 
Lees be-gan. He was 
the great -great -grand- 
fa -ther of Rob-ert, who 
was much like him m 
man-y ways. 

Strat-ford, the house 
in which Rob-ert was 
born, is a fine old man- 
sion, built in the shape 
of the let-ter H, and 
stands not far from the 
banks of the Po-to-mac 




Robert and His Mother. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBER T E. LEE. 



Riv-er and near the 
birth-place of Wash-ing- 
ton. Up-on the roof 
were sum-mer houses, 
where the band phiyed, 
while the young folks 
walked m the grounds 
be-low and en-joyed the 
cool air from the riv-er 
and the sweet inu-sic of 
the band. 

He had two broth-ers 
and two sis-ters. His 
broth-ers were named 
Charles Car-ter and Sid- 
ney Smith, and his sis- 
ters Anne and Mil-dred. 

When Rob-ert was 
but four years of age his 
fa-ther moved to Al-ex- 
an-dri-a, a city not ver-y 
far from the Strat-ford 
House, where he could 



send his boys to bet-ter 
schools. But he was not 
a-ble to stay with them 
and bring them up to 
man -hood. Short -ly 
af-ter he had moved to 
Al-ex-an-dri-a, he was 
hurt in Bal-ti-more by a 
mob of bad men, and he 
was nev-er well a-gain. 

When Rob-ert was six 
years old, his fa-ther 
went to the West In-dies 
for his health. While 
there he wrote kind let- 
ters to his son, Charles 
Car-ter Lee, and spoke 
with much love of all. 
Once he said, "Tell 
me of Anne. Has she 
grown tall? Rob-ert 
was al-ways good." He 
wished to know, al-so, if 



10 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



his sons rode and shot 
well, say-ing that a Vir- 
gln-i-an's sons should be 
taught to ride, shoot, and 
tell the truth. 

When he had been 
there five years, and on-ly 
grew worse, he made up 
his mind to re-turn home. 
But he crrtw so ill that 
he was put a-shore on 
Cum-ber-land Is-land at 
the home of a friend. 
He soon gave up all hope 
of life. At times his 
pain was so great that he 
would drive his ser-vants 
and ev-er-y one else out 
of the room. At length 
an old wo-man, who had 
been Mrs. Green's best 
maid, was sent to nurse 
him. The first thing 



Gen-er-al Lee did when 
she came in-to the room 
was to hurl his boot at 
her head. With-out a 
word, she picked up the 
boot and threw it back at 
him. A smile passed o- 
ver the old chief's face as 
he saw how brave she 
was, and from that time 
to the day of his death 
none but Mom Sa-rah 
could wait on him. Two 
months af-ter the sick sol- 
dier land-ed he was dead. 
His bod-y was laid to 
rest a-mid the ce-dars 
and flow-ers of the South, 
and it has nev-er been 
moved to Vir-gin-i-a. 

At this time Rob-ert 
was on-ly e-lev-en years 
old. If he was a good 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE, 



11 



boy, it was his moth-er 
who kept him so, for he 
nev-er knew a fa-ther's 
care. His moth-er once 
said to a friend, " How 
can I spare Rob-ert! He 
is both a son and a dauoh- 
ter to me." 

A-bout that time the 
girls and oth-er boys were 
a-way from home, and she 
had no one but Rob-ert 
to care for her. He took 
the keys and "kept house " 
for her when she was sick, 
and al-so saw to all of 
her out-door work. He 
would run home from 
school to ride out with 
her, so that she might en- 
joy the fresh air and sun- 
shine. When she would 
com-plain of the cold or 



draughts, he would pull 
out a great jack-knife and 
stuff the cracks with pa- 
per, for the coach was an 
old one. 

So he grew up by her 
side, a good and no-ble 
boy. At first he went to 
school to a Mr. Lear-y, 
who was ev-er his firm 
friend. Then he went to 
the school of Mr. Ben-ja- 
min H. Hal-lo-well, who 
al-vvays spoke of him as 
a fine young man. 

Rob-ert was fond o\ 
hunt-ing, and would some- 
times fol-low the hounds 
all day. In this way he 
rained that g^reat strenorth 
which was nev-er known 
to fail him in af-ter life. 

The old home, in Al- 



12 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



ex-an-dri-a, where his 
moth-er had hved, was 
al-ways a sa-cred place to 
him. Years af-ter, one 
of his friends saw him 
look-inor sad-lv o-ver the 
fence of the gar-den where 
he used to play. " I am 
look-ing," he said, " to 
see if the old snow-ball 
trees are still here. I 
should be sor-ry to miss 
them." 

When he was eigh-teen 
years old, he went to West 
Point to learn to be a sol- 
dier. He was there four 
years, and m that tmie 
nev-er oot a bad mark or 
de-mer-it. H i s clothes 
al-ways looked neat and 
clean, and his gun bright. 
In short, he kept the rules 



of the school and stud- 
ied so well that he came 
out sec-ond in his class. 
When he came home 
from West Point, he found 
his moth-er's old coach- 
man, Nat, ver-y ill. He 
took him at once to the 
South and nursed him 
with great care. But the 
spring-time saw the good 
old slave laid in the o-rave 
by the hand of his kind 
young mas-ter. Not ver-y 
long af-ter, his dear moth- 
er grew quite ill. He sat 
by her bed-side day and 
night, and gave her all 
her food and med-i-cine 
with his own hand. But 
his great care and love 
could not save her. He 
was soon be-reft of her 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



13 



to whom he used to say 


to ' Ma-ry, the moth-er 


he ''owed ev-er-y-thing." 


of Wash-ing-ton ' ; but it 


Some one has said, 


owes scarce-ly less to 


" Much has been writ-ten 


'Anne, the moth-er of 


of what the world owes 


Lee. 



Ex'-pe-di'-tion, a voy-age; a trip, with an aim in view. 

Stat'-ure, height. 

Draughts (drafts), cur-rents of air. 



14 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER II. 



A YOUNG ENGINEER. 



In 1829, when twen-ty- 
two years old, Rob-ert 
en-tered the En-gin-eer 
Corps of the U-ni-ted 
States, and thus be-came 
Lieu-ten-ant Lee. 

It is the du-ty of these 
en-gin-eers in time of 
peace, to plan forts, to 
change the course of riv- 
ers which make sand- 
banks at wrong places, 
and to do oth-er work of 
the same kind. Lieu- 
ten-ant Lee was sent at 
once to Hamp-ton Roads, 
in Vir-gin-i-a, to build 
strong works, not dream- 



ing that in af-ter years it 
would be his fate to try to 
pull them down. 

Lieu-ten-ant Lee was 
mar-ried on the 30th of 
June, 1831, to Ma-ry Cus- 
tis, who was the great- 
grand-daugh-ter of Mrs. 
Wash-ing-ton, and the 
on-ly child of George 
Parke Cus-tis, the a-dopt- 
ed son of Wash-ing-ton. 
She lived at a fine old 
place on the Vir-gin-i-a 
bank of the Po-to-mac 
Riv-er, called Ar-ling- 
ton. At this time Lieu- 
ten-ant Lee was ver-y 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



15 



hand-some i n face and 
tall and e-rect in fig- 
ure. 

Two years af-ter his 
mar-riage he was sent to 
the cit-y of Wash-ing- 
ton. This change was 
pleas-ant to him, for he 
was then near the home 
of his wife. 

In 1835, he was sent to 
St. Louis to find means 
to keep the great Mis-sis- 
sip-pi River in its own 
bed. It was a hard task, 
but he at last forced the 
migh-ty riv-er in-to the 
the chan-nel he wished. 
While at work, some 
men, who did not know 
what great thmgs he could 
do, tried to drive his work- 
men a-way, and e-ven 



brought up can-non. 
Lee did not mind them, 
but went on with his 
work, and soon had the 
great riv-er to flow in the 
right place. 

From St. Louis he was 
sent to New York, to 
plan and build new forts 
to pro-tect that great cit-y. 
He was now a cap-tain 
of en-gin-eers and was 
soon to try the hor-rors 
of war. 

In 1846, a war broke 
out be-tween the U-ni-ted 
States and Mex-i-co. 
" En-gin-eers are of as 
much use to an ar-my as 
sails to ships." They 
have to make roads and 
bridges, to plant big guns 
and draw maps, and guide 




Captain Lee Rescues the Drummer Boy. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Soon af-ter this brave 
deed, Cap-tain Lee was 
sent to join Gen-er-al 
Scott in the south of 
Mex-i-co. He was put 
to work at Ver-a Cruz 
(Va-ra-kroos,) a large 
town on the coast. There 
was a high wall, with 
strong forts a-round Ver- 
a Cruz. Gen-er-al Scott 
wished to take this cit-y 
from the Mex-i-cans. So 
Cap-tain Lee had to plant 
big guns, and build forts; 
and to do this he worked 
night and day. As they 
were short of men, he 
was told to take some 
sail-ors from a man-of- 
war to help with the 
work. These men be- 
gan to com-plain loud-ly. 



"They did not en-list to 
dig dirt, and they did not 
want to work un-der a 
land-Iul)-ber any-how." 
Their cap-tain said to Lee, 
"The boys don't want 
any dirt to hide be-hind; 
they want to get on the 
^oJ>, where they can have 
a fair fight." Lee quiet- 
ly showed his or-ders, and 
told the old "salt" he 
meant to car-ry them out, 
and pushed on the work 
'mid curses both loud and 
deep. Just as the work 
was done, the Mex-i-cans 
be-gan to fire their guns 
at that point, and these 
brave sons of the sea 
were glad e-nough to hide 
be-hind the "bank of 
dirt." Not lono- af-ter 



18 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 



their cap-tain met Cap- 
tain Lee and said, '' I sup- 
pose the dirt did save 
some of my boys. But 
I knew that we would 
have no use for dirt-banks 
on ship-board, that there 
what we want is a clear 
deck and an o-pen sea. 
And the fact is, Cap-tain, 
I don't like this land fight- 
ing any-way; tl ' aint 
clean!' 

Ver-a Cruz was taken 
by Gen-er-al Scott in two 
weeks' time. Then the 
men went on over hills 
and vales, till they came 
to the strong fort on Cer- 
ro Gor-do. Cap -tain 
Lee then found a way to 
lead the A-mer-i-cans to 
the rear of the Mex-i- 



cans, who soon broke 
and fled. 

While this bat-tie was 
rag-ing. Cap-tain Lee 
heard the cries of a lit-tle 
girl, and found by the 
side of a hut a Mex-i-can 
drum-mer boy. His arm 
had been bad-ly hurt and 
a large Mex-i-can, who 
had been shot, had fal- 
len on him. Cap-tain 
Lee stopped, had the big 
Mex-i-can thrown off of 
the boy, and the lit-tle 
fel-low moved to a place 
of safe-ty. His lit-tle 
sis-ter stood by. Her 
large black eyes were 
stream-ing with tears, her 
hands were crossed upon 
her breast, and her hair 
in one long plait reached 



THE LIFE OF GEM. ROBERT E. LEE. 



19 



her waist. Her feet and 
arms were bare. She 
was very thank-ful to 
Cap-tain Lee for sav-uig 
her broth-er. 

In a let-ter to his son 
from this place, he says : 
" I thought of } oil, my 
dear Cus-tis, on the 18th 
in the bat-tie, and won- 
dered, when the mus-ket 
balls and grape were 
vvhist-ling over my head, 
where I could put }'ou, if 
with me, to be safe. I 
was tru-ly thank-ful you 
were at school, I hope, 
learn-ino- to be orood and 
wise. You have no i-de- 
a what a hor-ri-ble sioht 
a bat-tle-field is." 

From Cef-ro Gof-do, 
they went on fight-ing 



bat-ties un-til they came 
to the large and rich cit-y 
of Mex-i-co. 

On this march, Cap- 
tain Lee was al-ways at 
the front to guide the men. 
Once, when one part of 
Gen-er-al Scott's ar-my 
had lost its way, Gen-er- 
al Scott sent sev-en en- 
gin-eers to guide it in-to 
the right road. They 
had to cross a huge, 
rouoh bed of la-va and 
rock. Six of them went 
back to camp, say-ing 
that they could not get a- 
cross ; but Cap-tain Lee 
pressed on, a-lone and on 
foot, and brought the men 
out in safe-ty. Gen-er-al 
Scott once said that it was 
the great-est feat done by 



20 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



any one 7nan dur-ing the 
war. 

There were man-y bat- 
tles fought, but at last the 
cit-y of Mex-i-co was ta- 
ken by Gen-er-al Scott. 
In af-ter years, this great 
man was heard to say 
that his great suc-cess in 
Mex-i-co was large-ly due 
to the skill and val-or of 
Rob-ert E. Lee, and that 
he was the best sol-dier 
that he ev-er saw in the 
field. 

In the midst of all this 
fight-ing, his boys were 
ev-er in his thoughts. 
This is a part of what he 
wrote to his son Cus-tis 
on Christ-mas-Eve, 1846: 

'T hope good San-ta 
Claus will fill my Rob's 



stock-ing to-night; that 
Mil-dred's, Ag-nes's and 
An-na's may break down 
with good things. I do 
not know what he may 
have for you and Mary, 
but if he leaves you one- 
half of what I wish, you 
will want for noth-ing. 
I think if I had one of 
you on each side of me, 
rid-ing on po-nies, I 
would be quite hap-py." 

Not long af-ter, he 
wrote to his boys thus: 

" The po-nies here cost 
from ten to fif-ty dol-lars. 
I have three hor-ses, but 
Cre-ole is my pet. She 
is a gold-en dun col-or, 
and takes me o-ver all the 
ditches I have yet met 
with." 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



21 



When the war was at 
last end-ed, in 1848, Cap- 
tain Lee went home for a 
short rest, af-ter which he 
was sent to West Point, 
as the Su-per-H'i-ten-dent 
of the A-cad-e-my from 



whose walls he had gone 
forth twen-ty years be- 
fore. His du-ty was to 
watch o-ver the stud-ies 
and train-ing of the boys 
who would one day be 
of-fi-cers m the Ar-my. 



Corps (kore), a bod-y of troops. 

Of'-fi-cer, one who has charge of sol-diers. 

La'-va, melt-ed mat-ter flow-ing from a vol-ca-no. 

Feat, a great deed. 

Lieu-ten'-ant (lu-ten'-ant), an of-fi-cer next be-low a cap-tain. 



22 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER III. 



A CAVALRY OFFICER. 



Af-ter be- in or three 
years at West Point, 
Cap-tain Lee was sent to 
Tex-as as Lieu-ten-ant- 
Col-o-nel (kur'-nel) of the 
Sec-oncl Reg-i-nient of 
Cav-al-ry. Cav-al-ry- 
men are sol-diers who 
fight on horse -back and 
who car-ry sa-bers, and 
pis-tols, and short guns, 
called car-bines. 

Col-o-nel Lee did not 
wish to leave the t^n-gin- 
eer Corps, as he had be- 
come ver-y fond of the 
work, and had won a high 
rank in it; but, as he had 



been pro- mot -ed to a 
high-er place, he thought 
it best to take it. When 
at West Point, he had 
been a fine horse-man. 
He was still fond of hor- 
ses and liked to see them 
fed and well ta-ken care 
of. Though now forty- 
six years of age, he still 
had a firm seat in the sad- 
dle and rode well. His 
reir-i-nient was sent to the 
new State of Tex-as, 
where his du-ty was to 
watch the In-di-ans and 
keep them from kill-ing 
the whites. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



23 



I have no doubt that 
Col-o-nel Lee en-joyed 
rid-ing o-ver the vast 
plains of Tex-as, but Hfe 
in the forts was not ver-y 
pleas-ant to such a man 
as Lee. The forts were 
in the midst of drear-y 
plains, and there were on- 
ly a few men at each post. 
The scout-ing par-ties 
were led by lieu-ten-ants, 
and the high-er of-fi-cers 
would re-main at the forts 
to see that all went right. 
Such a lone-ly life did 
not suit our he-ro, but 
he made the best of it. 
Near his first post. Camp 
Coop-er, was an In-di-an 
Re-serve, where the In- 
di-ans would come to be 
fed by the Gov-ern-ment. 



When it was cold and 
food was scarce, they 
would come in; but when 
the grass grew in the 
spring and the game was 
fat, they would go off and 
be-come wild and sav-age 
e-nough to kill those who 
had been kind to them. 

Ca-tum-seh, a Co- 
man-che chief, was at the 
Re-serve when Lee was 
at Camp Coop-er. Lee 
thought it would be bet- 
ter to vis-it him and tell 
him that he would trust 
him as a friend so long as 
he be-haved ; but if he 
did not be-have he would 
take him for a foe. Ca- 
tum-seh was not much 
pleased with Lee's speech, 
but gave an ug-ly grunt 



24 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



and said that, as he had 
nx wives, he was a '' big 
In-di-an." Lee had bet- 
ter '' get more wives be- 
fore he talked." This 
vis-it did not do much 
eood. Ca-tum-seh was 
no doubt tak-ing the 
meas-ure of Lee's scalp, 
while Lee was dis-pleased 
with the sly and filth-y 
sav-age. 

The Co-man-che \r\- 
di-ans were then the fierc- 
est tribe in that re-gion. 
They ate raw meat, slept 
on the ground, and were 
ereat thieves and mur- 
der-ers. They were fine 
horse-men, and moved 
swift-ly from place to place 
on their po-nies. 

In June, 1856, Lee was 



sent with four com-pa- 
nies of his reg-i-ment on 
an ex-pe-di-tion against 
the Co-man-ches, but 
they could not be found. 
The wi-ly sav-a-ges had 
fled to their des-ert re- 
treats, where foot of pale 
face had nev-er trod. 

From Camp Coop-er 
he writes to Mrs. Lee : 

^' My Fourth -of- July 
was spent af-ter a march 
of thir-ty miles in one ol 
the branch-es of the Bra'- 
zos, under my blank-et, 
which rest-ed on four 
sticks driv-en in the 
ground, as a sun-shade. 
The sun was fi-er-y hot, 
the air like a fur-nace, 
and the wa-ter salt ; still 
my love for my coun-try 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



25 



was as great, my faith in 
her fu-ture as true, as they 
would have been un-der 
bet-ter cir-cum-stan-ces." 

The change of weath- 
er in Texas is some-times 
very great. 

In an-oth-er let-ter, he 
tells his wife a-bout a cold 
wind or north-er. ''I 
came here in a cold north- 
er, and though I pitched 
my tent in the most shel- 
tered place I could find, 
I found this morn-ing, 
when get -ting up, my 
buck-et of wa-ter, which 
was close by my bed, so 
hard fro-zen that I had to 
break the ice be-fore I 
could pour the wa-ter in- 
to the ba-sin." 

While Col-o-nel Lee 



rode with his troop-ers 
from fort to fort, a dread- 
ful dis-ease broke out a- 
mongthem. Man-y died, 
but Col-o-nel Lee did not 
catch the dis-ease, though 
he lived a-mong his men 
and ran great risks. In 
these sad times, his 
thoughts were ev-er with 
his dear ones at home. 

In a let-ter dat-ed 
Camp Coop-er, June 9, 
1857, he tells a-bout the 
sick-ness of the troop-ers : 

'' The great heat has 
made much sick-ness a- 
mong the men. The 
chil-dren, too, have suf- 
fered. A bright lit-tle 
boy died from it a few 
days since. He was the 
on-ly child, and his pa- 



26 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



rents were much grieved 
at his loss * * *. For 
the first time in my hfe, 
I read the ser-vice of our 
Church o-ver the grave 
to a laree num-ber of sol- 
cliers." A few days af- 
ter, he a-gain read the 
ser-vice o-ver a lit-tle boy 
who had died with the 
dis-ease. 

In a long let-ter from 
Fort Brown, Tex-as, De- 
cem-ber, 1856, he says : 

'* I thought of you 
and wished to be with 
you." He wrote a-gain : 
"Though absent, my 
heart will be in the midst 
of you ; I can do noth-ing 
but love and pray for you 
all. My dai-ly walks are 
a-lone, up and down the 



banks of the river, and 
my chief pleas-ure comes 
from my own thoughts, 
and from the sioht of the 
flow-ers and an-i-mals I 
meet with here." 

In the midst of this 
wild, lone-ly life he was 
ev-er true to his faith m 
Christ, which he had pro- 
fessed af-ter the Mex-i- 
can war. 

There was at Ar-ling- 
ton a large yel-low cat, 
called Tom Ti-ta. All 
the fam-i-ly were fond of 
him, and Col-o-nel Lee 
amono- the rest. This 
led him to write home a- 
bout the cats he saw in 
his trav-els. He told 
once of a cat called by 
his mis-tress Jim Nooks. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



27 



He was a great pet, but 
at last cliecl from eat-ing 
too much. He had cof- 
fee and cream for break- 
fast, pound cake for lunch, 
tur-tle and oys-ters for 
clm-ner, but-tered toast 
and Mex-i-can rats, taken 
raw, for supper. He was 
ver-y hand-some, but his 
" beau-ty could not save 
hnn." The kmd-ness of 
his mis-tress was his ru-in. 

A-gain he told his lit- 
tle girl a-bout a cat which 
was dressed up. He had 
two holes bored in each 
ear, and in each wore 
bows of pink and blue 
rib-bon. He was snow- 
white and wore a gold 
chain on his neck. His 
tail and feet were tipped 



with black, and his eyes, 
of green, were tru-ly cat- 
like^. 

In the sum-mer of 1857, 
he was made Col-o-nel 
(kur'-nel) of his reg-i- 
ment. The next fall his 
fa-ther-in-law, Mr. Cus- 
tis, died, and Col-o-nel 
Lee went home for a short 
time. Mr. Cus-tis left 
Ar-ling-ton and the rest 
of his land to Mrs. Lee, 
and he also willed that at 
the end of five vears all 
of his slaves should be 
set free. He had cho-sen 
Col-o-nel Lee to see that 
his will was car-ried out. 

Col-o-nel Lee stayed 
as long as he could with 
his lone-ly wife, and then 
went back to his post in 



28 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Tex-as. It must have 
been far from ea-sy for 
him to go back to the wild, 
hard hfe on the plams. 
There were then no rail- 
roads. The U-ni-ted 
States mail was car-ried 
on mules, by armed sol- 
diers who rode in a gal- 
lop from place to place. 
Of-ten they were slain by 
the In-di-ans, who would 
scalp them and leave their 
bod-ies to be found by 
the troop-ers as they 
chased the sav-ages back 
to their re-treats. Two 
years more were spent in 
Tex-as, when, in Oc-to- 
ber, 1859, we find hmi 
a-gain at home, and tak- 
ing part in a great trag- 
e-dy. 



A man, named John 
Brown, made a plan to 
set free the ne-o^ro slaves 
who were then in the 
South, and to kill all the 
whites. This plot did 
not suc-ceed, and John 
Brown and his men took 
ref-uge in the Round 
House at Har-per's Fer- 
ry. Col-o-nel Lee, who 
was then at home on a 
fur-lough, was or-dered 
to take a band of sol- 
diers and cap-ture these 
bold men. He went at 
once to Har-per's Fer-ry 
and quick-ly took them 
pris-on-ers. They were 
then tried and hung for 
trea-son. 

Just here, I must tell 
you that the slaves were 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 



29 



blacks, or ne-groes, who 
had been first brought 
to this coun-try fi'om Af- 
ri-ca, in 1619, by the 
Dutch, and sold to the 
Vir-gin-i-a plant-ers. 
At first, the plant-ers 
bought them out of pit-y, 
as they were treat-ed 
bad-ly by the Dutch. 
But af-ter a tniie they 
found that they worked 
well in the corn and to- 
bac-co fields, and that 
they made mon-ey for 
then' mas-ters. 

M a n - y men at the 
North were sea-go-ing 
men, and they soon found 
out that, by sail-ing o-ver 
the o-cean to Af-ri-ca and 
catch-ing the blacks, they 
could sell them at a great 



prof-it to th em-selves. 
i his tlicy did, and men 
both at the North and 
South bought them, 
though, even then, there 
were some peo-ple at the 
South who thouoht it 
wrong to buy and sell 
hu- 



man be-inos. 

c!5 



In the State of Geor- 
gi-a it was for a time a- 
gainst the law to hold ne- 
gro slaves. 

Af-ter a time, it was 
found that the cli-mate at 
the North was too cold 
for the ne-gro to thrive. 
It did not pay the men at 
the North to keep them, 
and so they were sold to 
the south-ern plant-ers. 

In the South, the cli- 
mate was hot, like that of 



30 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



their na-tive Af-ri-ca, so 
they did well in that sun- 
ny land. 

In 1808, it was made 
un-law-ful to brmg an-y 
more slaves from Af-ri-ca 
to the U-ni-ted States. 
The peo-ple at the South 
were Q^lad that the trade 
in slaves was stopped, 
but the North-ern tra- 
ders were of course sor- 
ry that they could make 
no more mon-ey in that 
way. 

When the ne-groes 
were first brought from 
Af-ri-ca, they were hea- 
then sav-a-ges ; but, af-ter 
a few years, they learned 
the speech and cus-toms 
of the whites; and, more 
than all, the wor-ship of 



the true God. In think- 
ing of this, we have to 
ad-mit that sla-ver-y must 
have been per-mit-ted by 
the Lord in or-der to 
bring a hea-then peo-ple 
out of dark-ness in-to the 
light of the G OS -pel. 
There were now four mil- 
lions of ne-groes in the 
South. There was great 
love be-tween the blacks 
and their mas-ters, as we 
have seen when John 
Brown tried to get the 
for-mer to rise up and 
slay the whites. For 
years, there had been a 
feel-ino^ in the North that 
it was wrong to own 
slaves, and some of the 
peo-ple be-gan to hate the 
South and to try to crush 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



it. The South felt that 
they owned the slaves un- 
der the law, or Con-sti- 
tu-tion of the U-ni-ted 
States, and that they ought 
to be let a-lone They 
al-so claimed that the 
slaves, as a class, were 
bet-ter treat-ed than any 
oth-er work-mg peo-ple 
in the world. They 
more-o-ver said that the 
South-ern States had a 
per-fect right to go out 
of the Un-ion if they 
wished, and set up a gov- 
ern-ment for them-selves. 
This the North de-niecl ; 
and thus they quar-relled 
a-bout the rights of States, 
and sla-ver-y, and oth-er 
things, un-til they be-gan 
to think of war. 



In a short time af-ter 
the John Brown Raid, 
Col-o-nel Lee was back 
at his post in Tex-as, but 
he was much troub-led at 
the state of his dear coun- 
try. He loved the Un- 
ion and had lived near-ly 
all his life in its ser-vice ; 
but he knew that Vir-ein- 
i-a was in the right, and 
that he could not fi^ht a- 
gainst his na-tive State. 

So, when the war came, 
he left the U-ni-ted States 
Ar-my to fight for Vir- 
gin-i-a and the South. 

He was of-fered the 
chief com-mand of the 
U-ni-ted States Ar-my if 
he would re-main true to 
the Un-ion. He knew 
that if he went south he 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



33 



States of A-mer-i-ca," 
and Mr. Jef-fer-son Da- 
vis was made Pres-i-dent 



of them, and Rich-mond, 
in Vir-gin-i-a, was the 
cap-i-tal cit-y. 



Sa'-bers, swords with broad blades. 

Fur-lough (fur'-lo), a leave of ab-sence. 

Trea'-son (tre'zon), the act of be-ing false to one's coun-try. 

Pro-mo'-ted, raised to a high-er rank. 

Reg'-i-ment, a bod-y of troops un-der a col-o-nel. 

Trag'-e-dy, an ac-tion in which the life of a per-son is tak-en. 



34 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



A CONFEDERATE GENERAL. 



In this lit-tle book I 
can-not tell all that hap- 
pened dur-ing the Civ-il 
War, but on-ly as much 
as will re-late to our he- 
ro, Gen-er-al Lee. 

There were now two 
o^ov-ern-ments— one at the 
North ; the other at the 
South. Mr. A-bra-ham 
Lin-coln was Pres-i-dent 
of the North, or Fed-er- 
als, while Mr. Jef-fer-son 
Da-vis was the Pres-i- 
dent of the South, or 
Con-fed-er-ates. The 
first thought of the North 
was to de-fend Wash-ing- 



ton, their cap-i-tal cit-y ; 
while the South was just 
as bus-y tak-ing care of 
Rich-mond, and get-ting 
arms and troops read-y 
for war. 

In this war, broth-er 
fought a-gainst broth-er, 
and friend a-o;ainst friend. 
It was a time of great 
troub-le all o-ver the land. 
At the North, one hun- 
dred thou-sand men were 
en-list-ed in three days. 
At the South, the mad- 
ness was just as great. 
Men rushed to arms from 
all parts of the coun-try. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



35 



In these storm -y times, 
the drums beat all clay 
long in the streets and 
flags waved in ev-er-y di- 
rec-tion, and trains were 
load-ed with armed men 
go-ing to bat-tie and to 
death. Men and wom-en 
wept in the streets as they 
cheered the boys who 
were off to the war. For 
a time, peo-ple hard-ly 
took time to sleep and 
eat. 

The Fed-er-als wore a 
u-ni-form of blue, while 
the Con-fed-er-ates were 
clad in grey; hence they 
were some-times called 
*'the blue" and "the 
grey." 

The first blood which 
flow-ed in this war was 



shed in Bal-ti-more. The 
Sixth Mas-sa-chu-setts 
Reg-i-ment, as it was 
pass-ing through the cit-y 
on its way south, was at- 
tacked by a band of men 
who loved the South and 
could not bear to see them 
march-inor on to fig^ht 
their breth-ren. The sol- 
diers fired at the men 
who had no guns, and 
killed sev-er-al of them. 
This hap-pened on A-pril 
the 19th, 1861. 

The first gun of the 
war was fired at half-past 
four o'clock, A-pril 12, 
1861, at Fort Sum-ter, in 
South Car-o-li-na. This 
fort was tak-en by the 
Con-fed-er-ates af-ter a 
fight of thir-ty-four hours, 



36 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



in which no one was hurt 
on ei-ther side. 

Dur-ing the first 
months of the war, Gen- 
er-al Lee was kept in 
Rich-mond to send Vir- 
gin-i-a men, who came to 
fight for the South, to the 
pla-ces where they were 
most need-ed. All a- 
round Rich-mond were 
camps, where men were 
trained for war. The 
larg-est of these camps 
was called "Camp Lee," 
af-ter our he-ro. But in 
Ju-ly, 1861, Lee was sent 
to West-ern Vir-gin-i-a, 
and was, for the first time, 
com-mand-er of troops in 
the field. 

Just then, there were 
heav-y rains and a great 



deal of sick-ness a-mong 
the men of his small ar- 
my, so that he was not a- 
ble to at-tack the en-e-my, 
as he had planned. 

Af-ter some time, it 
was thougrht best to orive 
up West-ern Vir-gin-i-a, 
and Gen-er-al Lee went 
back to Rich-mond, where 
he stayed on-ly a short 
time. In No-vem-ber, 
1861, he was sent south to 
build a line of forts a-long 
the coasts of South Car- 
o-li-na and Geor-gi-a. 
In four months' time he 
did much to show his 
skill as an en-gin-eer. 

But a large North-ern 
ar-my, un-der Gen-er-al 
Mc-Clel-lan, was at the 
gates of Rich-mond, and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 



37 



Lee was sent for to take 
charo-e of all the ar-mies 
of the South. Very 
soon, a bat-tie was fought 
at Sev-en Pines, May 31st, 
which stopped Gen-er-al 
Mc-Clel-lan's -On to 
Rich-mond." In that 
bat-tie Gen-er-al John- 
ston, the com-mand-ing 
gen-er-al, was bad-ly 
wounded, and Gen-er-al 
Lee was put in his place. 
Lee was swift to plan and 
as swift to act. His task 
was hard. The hosts of 
the North were at the 
gates of Rich-mond. 
The folks on the house- 
tops could see their camp- 
fires and hear the roar 
of their can-non. Lee at 
once be-gan to make 



earth-works, and to place 
his men for bat-tie. Ev- 
er-y day now a fine-look- 
ing man, clad in a neat 
grey un-i-form, might be 
seen rid-inora-lono- the line. 

He wished to know 
what was oro-incr on in the 
camp of the foe, and now 
the right man came for- 
ward. His name was J. 
E. B. Stu-art, best known 
as Jeb Stu-art. He led 
his brave troop-ers quite 
a-round the ar-my of the 
North and found out all 
that Lee wished to know. 
He was ev-er af-ter this, 
un-til his death, the "eyes 
and ears " of Lee. 

"Stone-wall" Jack- 
son now came from the 
Val-ley with his brave 



38 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



men, and Lee at once be- 
gan the '' Sev-en Days 
Bat-tie." If Stu-art was 
" the eyes and ears " of 
Lee, Jack-son was his 
" right arm," as you will 
learn be-fore you get 
through with this lit-tle 
book. 

For sev-en days the 
bat-tie went on, and at 
last the ar-my of the Po- 
to-mac, un-der Gen-er-al 
Mc-Clel-lan, was forced 
back to the James ri-ver, 
and Rich-mond was saved 
from the foe by the skill 
of Lee and the val-or of 
his men. 

Lee now marched north 
to -wards Wash -ing- ton 
Cit-y, and in Au-gust, 
1862, met the ar-my of 



Gen-er-al Pope and 
fouoht the Sec-ond Bat- 
tie of Man-as-sas. Lee 
had made a bold plan to 
put the ar-my of Pope to 
flight. He sent Stone- 
wall Jack-son fif-ty-six 
miles a-round to the rear 
of Pope, while he (Lee) 
kept him in check m 
front. 

Jack-son's men march- 
ed so fast that they were 
called "foot cav-al-ry." 
They ate ap-ples and 
green corn as they 
marched a-long, for they 
had no time to stop. 

On-ly one man a-mong 
them knew where they 
were go-ing. Lit-tle 
cared they, for Stone-wall 
Jack-son knew. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



39 



On the e-ven-ing of the 
sec-ond day, Jack -son, 
with twen-ty thou -sand 
men, was be-tween Pope 
and Wash-ing-ton Cit-y. 
Lee was in front of Pope 
with the rest of the 
ar-my. 

Gen-er-al Jack-son fell 
up-on Man-as-sas Junc- 
tion and took three hun- 
dred pris-on-ers and 
man-y car-loads of food 
and clothes. Af-ter the 
men had eat-en what food 
they want-ed, they burned 
the rest and moved a-way. 

Jack-son found a good 
po-si-tion from which to 
fight, and when Pope's 
men came up was read-y 
for them. They fought 
all day, and when the 



pow-der and shot gave 
out the South-ern men 
fought with stones. 

All this time Lee, with 
most of the men, was 
com-ing round to help 
Jack-son. How ea-ger- 
ly Jack-son looked for 
help ! He had on-ly 
twen-ty thou -sand men 
a-gainst three times that 
man-y. At last Lee 
came up, and the bat-tie 
was won (Au-gust 30th). 
Man-y brave men were 
killed on both sides, but 
Lee was the vic-tor. In 
three months' time he 
had driv-en the foe from 
Rich-moncl, and was now 
in front of Wash-ine-ton 
with his ar-my. 

He now sent Gen-er-al 



40 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 



Jack-son to Har-per's 
Fer-ry, where he took as 
prls-on-ers twelve thou- 
sand men of the North. 
Jack-son then hur-ried 
back to Lee, who now 
crossed the Po-to-mac 
and went o-ver In-to Ma- 
ry-land, on Sep-tem-ber 
S, 1862. 

At Sharps-burg some- 
times called An-tie-tam 
(An-te'-tam), he a-gain 
met the fresh ar-my of 
Mc-Clel-lan and fought 
one of the most blood-y 
bat-ties of the war. Lee 
had on-ly half as man-y 
men as Mc-Clel-lan, but 
when, af-ter the bat-de, 
Lee thought it best to re- 
turn to Vir-gin-i-a, Mc- 
Clel-lan did not fol-low 



him. Lee led his ar-my 
back to Vir-gin-i-a with- 
out the loss of a gun or 
a wag-on, and they rested 
near Win-ches-ter, Vir- 
gin-i-a. 

Gen-er-al Lee, in his 
tent near Win-ches-ter, 
heard of the death of his 
dauorh-ter An-nie. She 

o 

had been his dear-est 
child, and his grief at her 
death was great; but 
he wrote thus to Mrs. 
Lee : 

''But God in this, as in 
all things, has min-gled 
mer-cy with the blow by 
se-lect-ing the one best 
pre-pared to go. May 
you join me in say-ing 
'His will be done' !" 

It was now Mc-Clel- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 



41 



lan's turn to at-tack Lee, 
but he was slow to move — 
so slow that Mr. Lin-coln 
sent him word "to cross 
the Po-to-mac and give 
bat-tie to the foe, and 
drive him south." But 
still he did not move, and 
Lee, who was al-so want- 
mg to move, sent Jeb 
Stu-art o-ver m-to Ma-ry- 
land to find out what Mc- 
Clel-lan was do-inof. 
That gal-lant man a-gain 
went a-round the whole 
North-ern ar-my, and 
came back safe to Lee, 
hav-mg found out what 
Lee wished to know. 

The North-ern ar-my 
now came back to Vir- 
gin-i-a and Lee moved to 
Fred-er-icks-burs", a town 



on the Rap-pa-han-nock 
riv-er. 

Burn-side was now at 
the head of the North- 
ern ar-my, as Gen-er-al 
Mc-Clel-lan was too 
slow to suit Mr. Lin- 
coln, and had been put 
a-side. 

Lee placed his men on 
the heights a-bove the 
riv-er, on the south side, 
while Burn-side's hosts 
were on Staf-ford Heights 
and the plains be-low. 

At day-light on De- 
cem-ber 13, 1862, the bat- 
tle be-gan, and was fought 
brave-ly by both sides. 
But Burn-side's men had 
but lit-tle chance, since 
Lee's men from a-bove 
poured the shot and shell 



42 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



SO fast that they could not 
move for-ward. 

The noise of this bat- 
tle was ter-ri-ble, as there 
were three hun-dred can- 
non roar-ing at once. 

As Burn-side's guns 
were fired di-rect-ly at the 
town, the hous-es were 
soon on fire and a dense 
cloud of smoke hung o- 
ver its roofs and stee-ples. 
Soon the red flames 
leaped up high a-bove the 
smoke and the peo-ple 
were driv-en from their 
homes. Hun-dreds of 
wom-en and chil-dren 
were seen wan-der-ino^ a- 
long the fro-zen roads, not 
know-ing where to find a 
place of safe-ty. 

Gen-er-al Lee stood 



up-on a ridge which is 
now called "Lee's Hill," 
and watched this pain-ful 
scene. For a long time 
he stood si-lent, and then, 
in his deep, grave voice, 
said these words, which 
were the most bit-ter that 
he was ev-er known to 
ut-ter: ** These peo-ple 
de-light to de-stroy the 
weak, and those who can 
make no de-fence; it just 
suits them." 

When the day was 
done, Lee was a-gain vic- 
tor. 

In less than six months 
Lee had fought foitr 
great bat-ties — all vic-to- 
ri-ous to his arms, ex-cept 
that of Sharps-burg, which 
was nei-ther a vic-to-ry 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



43 



nor de-feat. The South- 
ern ar-my was now full 
of hope and cour-age. 
At the bat-tie of Fred- 
er-icks-burg, Lee had on- 
ly six-ty thou-sand men, 
while Burn-side's ar-my 
num-bered o-ver one hun- 
dred thou-sand. In this 
bat-tie Lee lost five thou- 
sand men, while twelve 
thou-sand of Burn-side's 
men lay stark and cold 
up-on the blood-y field. 

Lee grieved o-ver the 
loss of his brave men, 
and for the good peo-ple 
of Fred-er-icks-burg who 
had lost their homes by 
fire dur-inor the fio^ht. 
He now wait-ed day af-ter 
day for Burn-side to at- 
tack, but in vain. At 



length Lee went in-to 
win-ter quar-ters in a tent 
at the edge of an old pine 
field near Fred-er-icks- 
burg, and be-gan to get 
read-y for fight when the 
spring came. It was at 
this time that a-monof a 
num-ber of fowls eiv-en 
to Lee, was a fine hen 
which be-ran the eofe 
bus-i-ness be-fore her 
head came off, and Bry- 
an, Lee's ser-vant, saved 
her for the CQ^cr which he 
found each day in the 
Gen-er-al's tent. Lee 
would leave the door of 
the tent o-pen for the hen 
to go in and out. She 
roost-ed and rode in the 
wag-on, and was an eye- 
wit-ness of the bat-tie of 



44 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Chan-cel-lors-ville. She 
was al-so at the bat-tie of 
Get-tys-burg; but when 
or-ders were giv-en to fall 
back, the hen could not 
be found. At last, they 
saw her perched on top 
of the wag-on, read-y to 
go back to her na-tive 
State. 

In 1864, when food be- 
gan to get scarce and Bry- 
an was in sore need for 
some-thing nice for guests, 
he killed the good old hen 
un-known to her mas-ter. 
At din-ner, Gen-er-al Lee 
thought it a ver-y fine 
fowl, not dream-ing that 
Bry-an had killed his pet. 

It was now time for 
Lee to car-ry out the will 
of old Mr. Cus-tis and 



set free his slaves. Man-y 
of them had been car-ried 
off by the North-ern men, 
but now he wrote out the 
deed and set them free by 
law. He wrote thus of 
them to Mrs. Lee : 

"They are all en-ti-tled 
to their free-dom, and I 
wish them to have it. 
Those that have been car- 
ried a-way I hope are free 
and hap-py." 

He had set free his 
own slaves years be-fore. 

Lee had proved so 
great a lead-er that the 
peo-ple of the South be- 
gan to look to him with 
great love and hope. 

Dur-ing these bat-ties, 
of which I have told you, 
one-half the South-ern 



THE LIFE OF G^N. ROBERT E. EEE 



45 



men were in rags, and 
man-y were with -out 
shoes. Yet shoe-less, 
hat-less, rag-ged and 
starv-ing, they fol-lowed 
Lee and fought his bat- 
tles. Their pet name for 
him was '' Marse Rob- 
ert." They knew that 
their ereat chief cared for 



them, and would not send 
them in-to dan-ger if he 
could help it; and it was 
no fault of his if their 
food was scant and poor. 
They learned to love and 
trust him. *' Marse Rob- 
ert says so " was their 
bat-tle-cry. 



Pres'-i-dent the head of a free peo-ple. 

Mer'-cy, kind-ness. 

Gal'-lant, brave; dar-ing in fight. 

Vic'-tor, one who wins. 

Po-si'-tion, place. 



46 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER V. 

A CONFEDERATE GENERAL. 

( Contimted, ) 



When the spring of 
1863 came, the two ar- 
mies were still in sight of 
each oth-er near Fred-er- 
icks-burg. A new man, 
Gen-er-al Hook-er, some- 
tunes called '' Fight-ing 
Joe," had been put at 
the head of the ar-my of 
the North. Take note 
that he was the fourth 
gen-er-al that Pres-i-dent 
Lin-coln had sent forth 
with-in a year to con- 
quer Lee. 

Lee watched his new 



foe, and when he had 
found out his plans was 
read-y for him. He fell 
back to a place called 
Chan-cel-lors-ville, and 
there, in the midst of a 
dense for-est, the fight 
took place (May 2, 3). 

While the bat-tie was 
go-ing on, Lee sent Jack- 
son to the rear to cut 
Hook-er off from a ford 
m the riv-er. Jack-son's 
men moved through the 
for-est so swift-ly and 
with so lit-tle noise that 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



47 



they fell up-on Hook-er's 
men with a loud yell be- 
fore he knew they were 
near. They rushed out 
like a thun-der-bolt and 
swept down up-on the 
line like a flash of lioht- 
ning. The foe did not 
wait, but turned and fled. 
It was now near-ly 
dark, and, as Jack-son 
rode for-ward to view the 
way, he was shot by his 
own men, who, in the dmi 
light, thought that he and 
his aids were a squad of 
North-ern cav-al-ry. He 
was shot in three places — 
m his right hand, his right 
arm, and a-gam un-der 
his left shoul-der. He 
was placed in a lit-ter and 
tak-en from the field. 



All care was tak-en of 
this great and good man, 
but he died the next Sun- 
day. His last words 
were : 

"Or-der A. P. Hill to 
pre-pare for ac-tion. 
Pass the in-fan-try to the 
front. Tell Ma-jor 
Hawkes" — he stopped 
and then said, as if the 
fight was o-ver, "Let us 
pass o-ver the riv-er and 
rest un-der the trees." 

Thus passed a-way the 
great Stone -wall Jack- 
son, the "right arm of 
Lee." 

For two days af-ter 
Jack-son was wouncl-ed, 
the fight went on and 
raged with great fu-ry. 
Gen-er-al Hook-er was 



48 



THE LIFB of gen. ROBERT B. LEE. 



struck by a piece of wood 
split off by a can-non 
l^all, and for a time was 
thought dead. 

Lee made bold plans 
and his brave men car- 
ried them out. Stu-art, 
who had tak-en Stone- 
wall Jack-son's com- 
mand, led his men to bat- 
tle, sing-ing ''Old Joe 
Hook-er, won't you come 
out of the wil-der-ness." 

At last the bat-tie of 
Chan -eel -lors-ville was 
won and Hook-er was 
forced back to his old 
camp at Fred-er-icks- 
burg. 

Chan-cel-lors-ville was 
Lee's great -est bat-tie, 
but its glo-ry was cloud- 
ed by Jack-son's death. 



Gen-er-al Lee wrote to 
his wife, May 11, 1863: 

**You will see we 
have to mourn the loss of 
the good and great Jack- 
son. * * J l<:now not 
how to re-place him, but 
God's will be done." 

In this bat-tie Lee had 
on-ly fif-ty-three thou- 
sand men, one-third as 
man-y men as Hook-er. 

In June, 1863, Lee a- 
gain crossed the Po-to- 
mac and met an ar-my 
un-der Gen-er-al Meade 
at Get-tys-burg, in Penn- 
syl-va-ni-a. 

Lee had two rea-sons 
for this move. One was 
to ofet food for his men 
and hors-es; and the oth- 
er to draw the North-ern 



THE LIFE OF GEM. ROBERT E. LEE. 



49 



ar-my a-way from its 
s t r o n o- forts a - r o ii n d 
Wash-ing-ton CIt-y. He 
o^ave strict or-ders to his 
men not to steal and rob. 
This is a part of his or- 
der: 

"The com-mand-inof 
gen-er-al thmks that no 
great-er dis-grace could 
be-fall the ar-my, and 
through it our whole peo- 
ple, than to com-mit out- 
ra-ges on the m-no-cent 
and de-fence-less. * * * 
It must be re-mem-bered 
that we make war on-ly 
up-on armed me7i.'' 

This or-der, with its 
no-ble Chris-tian spir-it, 
will re-main the un-dy- 
ing glo-ry of Lee ; for all 
that he had had been tak- 



en by the Fed-er-als. 
His wife and daugh-ters 
were home-less, yet he 
did not fail to re-turn 
good for e-vil. 

When Lee start-ed in- 
to Ma-ry-land, he sent 
Jeb Stu-art on a-head to 
guard the right flank of 
his ar-my. By some mis- 
hap, he crossed the Po- 
to-mac too far to the east, 
and soon found that the 
whole Fed-er-al ar-my 
was be-tween him and 
Gen-er-al Lee. By hard 
fight-ing and rid-ing he 
at last joined Lee at Get- 
tys-burg, but not un-til 
af-ter the fight had be- 
gun. Lee was thus with- 
out his "eyes and ears," 
as we have called Gen- 



50 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



er-al Stu-art, and could 
not tell just where the foe 
was. Nei-ther Lee nor 
Meade had planned to 
fight at Get-tys-burg, but 
they fell up-on each oth- 
er pret-ty much like two 
men grop-ing in the dark. 
For the first two days 
(July 1, 2) Lee's men 
drove back the en-e-my. 
On the third day, at one 
o'clock P. M., Lee be- 
gan to fight with one hun- 
dred and fif-ty big guns. 
For two hours the air 
was a-live with shells. 
Then, out of the woods 
swept the Con-fed-er-ate 
bat-tie line, o-ver a mile 
long, un-der Gen-er-al 
Pick-ett. A thrill of won- 
der ran a-long the Fed- 



er-al lines as that grand 
col-umn of fif-teen thou- 
sand men marched, with 
rag-ged clothes, but bright 
guns and red bat-tie-flags 
fly-ing, up the slope of 
Cem-e-ter-y Ridge. 
Down up-on them came 
shot and shell from guns 
on the heights a-bove and 
round them. The line 
was bro-ken, but on they 
went. They planted 
their Con-fed-er-ate flao^s 
on the breast-works ; they 
fought hand to hand and 
killed men at the can- 
nons with the bay-o-net; 
but down from the hill 
rushed tens of thou-sands 
of Fed-er-als, and man-y 
who were not killed were 
tak-en pris-on-ers. Few 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



51 



got back to tell the sto-ry. 
That night the stars 
looked down up-on a field 
of dead and dy-ing men 
and al-so up-on a sad 
gen-er-al. Lee's or-ders 
had not been o-beyed, 
and, for the first tmie, he 
had been foiled. 

Lee af-ter-wards said 
to a friend, '' Had I 
Stone -wall Jack -son at 
Get- tys- burg, I would 
have won a o-reat vic-to- 
ry. 

He had made a bold 
plan to at-tack ear-ly in 
the day ; but it was not 
done, and thus Meade 
got time to bring up his 
troops. Meade did not 
at-tack Lee, who rested 
that night up-on the same 



ground as the night be- 
fore. 

Lee now had but lit-tle 
pow-der and shot. On 
the next day, the 4th of 
Ju-ly, he start-ed his long 
trains of wound-ed and 
pris-on-ers to-wards Vir- 
gin-i-a ; and, at the same 
time, bur-iecl his dead. 
That night, in a storm, 
the ar-my be-gan its 
home-ward march, and 
reached the Po-to-mac 
riv-er to find it too high to 
cross. Calm and brave, 
Lee sent his wound-ed 
o-ver in boats and got 
read-y for Meade. But 
Meade was in no mood 
to at-tack Lee and came 
up slow-ly. 

While wait-inpf for the 



52 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



riv-er to fall, Lee heard 
of the cap-ture of his son 
Gen. W. H. F. Lee. 

On the 13th, Lee's men 
be-gan to cross the riv-er, 
and by the next night 
they were a-gain safe in 
Vir-gni-i-a. 

The men lost at Get- 
tys-burg were nev-er re- 
placed, for the South had 
sent forth all her fio^ht- 
inor men and had no more 
to give. 

The rest of the year 
passed with-out any great 
bat-tie. Lee's chief con- 
cern was to watch Meade, 
who would not give bat- 
tle, and to get food and 
clothes for his men. 

A-bout this time the 
cit-y of Rich-mond pre- 



sent-ed a house to Lee. 
This he kind-ly but firm- 
ly re-fused to take, and 
begged that what means 
the cit-y had to spare 
might be giv-en to the 
fam-i-lies of his poor sol- 
diers. 

Late in No-vem-ber, 
Gen-er-al Meade moved 
to-wards Lee, who had 
built strong forts at Mine 
Run. But he found the 
forts too strong for at-tack 
and with -drew dur-ing 
the night. 

The next year a new 
man was sent a-gainst 
Lee — U-lys-ses S. Grant. 
Lee had now on-ly six- 
ty-two thou-sand men to 
meet Grant, who had one 
him-dred and twen-ty- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



53 



five thoti-sa7id men, and a 
wag-on train that reached 
six-ty-five miles. With 
this large ar-my, Grant 
crossed the Rap- i -dan 
riv-er, and marched on to 
give Lee bat-tie. Lee 
did not wait for Grant, 
but went for-ward and 
met his hosts in a place 
called the Wil-der-ness, 
which was a vast for-est 
full of un-der-brush, and 
with on-ly nar-row roads 
here and there. It was 
a bad place in which to 
fight a bat-tie, for no man 
could see but a few yards 
a-round him. Can-non 
and horse-men were of no 
use, be-cause they could 
not move through the tan- 
gled bush-es. Grant did 



not know that Lee's men 
were so near. But when 
they rushed in-to these 
wilds and bold-ly be-gan 
the fioht he had to mve 
bat-tie. For two days. 
May 5th and 6th, 1864, 
two hun-dred thou-sand 
men m blue and grey 
fought breast to breast in 
the thick-ets. Men fell 
and died un-seen, their 
bod-ies lost in the bush-es 
and their death -groans 
drowned in the roar of 
bat-tie. 

In the midst of these 
hor-rors, the woods caught 
on fire and man-y of the 
wound-ed were burnt a- 
live. Lee, how-ev-er, 
pressed for-ward, and 
when night closed had 



54 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



tak-en a por-tion of the 
Fed-er-al breast -works. 
On the morn-ing of the 
7th, Grant made no mo- 
tion to at-tack Lee, but 
that nisfht marched to- 
wards Spot-syl-va-ni-a 
Court- House. Lee at 
once found out his plans 
and be-gan a race to reach 
there first. When the 
front of Grant's ar-my 
reached the Court- House 
the next morn-ing, they 
found Lee's men be-hind 
breast-works and read-y 
for the fight. Lee had 
got-ten be-tween Grant 
and Rich-mond. That 
e-ven-ing the two great 
ar-mies were a-gam fac- 
inof each oth-er on the 
banks of the Po riv-er. 



Here they threw up 
breast-works, which may 
yet be seen. 

For twelve days, Grant 
made man-y at-tacks up- 
on Lee's lines. Ear-ly 
on the morn-incr of the 
12th his men made an o- 
pen-ing in Lee's Imes and 
poured in by thou-sands. 
Lee's men ran up quick- 
ly and soon a most ter- 
ri-ble fight took place. 
The trench-es ran with 
blood and the space was 
piled with dead bod-ies, 
whose lips were black 
with pow-der from bit-ing 
car-trido-es. 

Though Grant held 
that po-si-tion, he could 
not break through the sec- 
ond line. The lit-tle ar- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



55 



my in grey stood as firm 
as the moun-tains. 

In the fight of which 
I have just told you, Gen- 
er-al Lee rode in fi:*ont, 
with hat off, to lead the 
charge; but Gen-er-al 
Gor-don dashed up and 
said : 

'' These are Vir-gin-i- 
ans and Geor-o^i-ans who 
have nev-er failed. Go 
to the rear, Gen-er-al 
Lee." 

Then he said to the 
men : 

'' Must Gen-er-al Lee 
lead this charge ? " 

"No! No!" they cried; 
*'we will drive them back 
if Gen-er-al Lee will go 
to the rear." 

They rushed off and 



once more hurled back 
the Fed-er-al troops. 

Grant now sent his 
cav-al-ry gen-er-al, Sher- 
i-dan, on a raid near 
Rich-mond. A fierce 
bat-tie was fouorfit at Yel- 
low Tav-ern, in which the 
fa-mous Jeb Stu-art was 
wound-ed so that he died 
the next day. A-las ! for 
Lee ; Jack-son and Stu- 
art were both grone. 

Grant a-gain moved to 
the rear, and Lee next 
moved to the North An- 
na riv-er. While Grant 
was a-gain try-ing to flank, 
Lee got to the old works 
at Cold Har-bor. Grant 
made an at-tack at day- 
light. His troops, sink- 
ing in-to a swamp, were 



56 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



killed by thou- sands, 
while Lee lost but few 
men. 

A sec-ond as-sault was 
or-dered, but the men 
would not move for-ward. 
A-bout thir-teen thou- 
sand of their com-rades 
had been killed in less 
than half an hour, and 
they could no long-er 
stand the aw-ful fire. 

We are told by Gen- 
er-al Fitz-hugh Lee that 
Lee's men were hun-gry 
and mad. One crack-er 
to a man, with no meat, 
was a lux-u-ry. One 
poor fel-low, who had his 
crack-er shot out of his 
hand be-fore he could eat 
it, said : '' The next time 
I'll put my crack-er in a 



safe place down by the 
breast-works where it 
won't get wound-ed, poor 
thing ! " 

Lee a-gain stood in 
Grant's way to Rich- 
mond. Li the bat-ties 
fi*om the Wil-der-ness to 
Cold Har-bor, Grant had 
lost six-ty thou-sand men, 
while Lee's loss was eigh- 
teen thou-sand. 

Just be-fore the bat- 
tle of Cold Har-bor, 
Grant had looked for Si- 
gel to move up the Val- 
ley and fall up-on Lee's 
rear. But Si -gel was 
met at New Mar-ket on 
Alay 15th by Breck-en- 
ridge with five thou-sand 
troops, among which was 
a band of ca-dets from 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



57 



the Vir-gin-i-a Mil-I-ta-ry 
In-sti-tute at Lex-inor-ton. 
These boys fought Hke 
he-roes, fif-ty of them be- 
ing killed and wound-ed. 
Si-o-el was sent run-ning 
back down the Val-ley, 
and Breck-en-ridge then 
marched to the help of 
Lee. 

Grant then, on the 
night of June 12th, be-gan 
to move his ar-my south 
of the James riv-er to 
march to-wards Pe-ters- 
burg, a cit-y a-bout twen- 
ty-one miles south of 
Rich-mond. 

The fa-mous Gen-er-al 
Beau-re-gard (Bo^-re- 
gard) was at Pe-ters-burg 
with on-ly a-bout two 
thou-sand men, as he had 



sent the most of his troops 
to the north side of the 
James riv-er to the help 
of Lee. 

A-gainst these, on the 
ISth, Gen-er-al Grant sent 
eio-h-teen thou-sand men. 

Beau-re-gard held 
these men in check un-til 
Lee sent troops to aid 
him. Lee then came up 
with the main ar-my, and 
Grant, hav-ing lost ten 
thou-sand men, now be- 
gan to make trench-es 
and build forts to pro-tect 
his men, as he was go-ing 
to lay siege to Pe-ters- 
burg, the key to Rich- 
mond. 

Lee had to de-fend 
both Rich-mond and Pe- 
ters-burg with lines thir- 



58 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



ty-five miles long, a-gainst 
Grant's ar-my, which was 
twice as laro^e as his own. 
In fact, Grant had all the 
men that he asked for ; 
while Lee's ranks were 
thin and food scarce. A 
fourth of a pound of meat 
and one pound of flour 
was all that each sol-dier 
had for one day. 

In this stress, it is said 
that Lee thought it best 
to give up Rich-mond 
and march south to join 
the ar-my there. I do 
not know the truth of that 
state-ment. At an-y rate, 
he did not go, but went 
to work to make his lines 
strong-er and to get in 
food for his men. One of 
his great cares was to 



keep Grant from get-ting 
hold of the rail-roads 
which brought food from 
the South and oth-er parts 
of the coun-try. 

Just here, it will be well 
to give you some of the 
war prices at that time. 
Flour brought, in Con- 
fed-er-ate mon-ey, two 
hun-dred and fif-ty dol- 
lars per bar-rel ; meal, fif- 
ty dol-lars ; corn, for-ty ; 
and oats, twen-ty-five dol- 
lars per bush-el. Brown 
sug-ar cost ten dol-lars 
per pound ; cof-fee, twelve 
dol-lars ; tea, thir-ty-five 
dol-lars ; and they were 
scarce and hard to get. 
Wool-en goods were 
scarce ; cal-i-co cost thir- 
ty dol-lars per yard, and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



59 



lead pen-cils one dol-lar 
a-piece. Wom-en wore 
dress-es that were made 
of cloth spun, wov-en and 
dyed by then* own hands. 
Large thorns were used 
for pins and hair-pins, and 
shoes were made with 
wood -en soles. Hats 
were made by girls out of 
wheat straw, plait-ed in-to 
a braid and then sewed 
in-to shape. 

Those were in -deed 
hard tmies ; but m spite 
of want and care, the spir- 
its and cour-age of the 
South-ern peo-ple did not 
flag. All food that could 
be spared was sent to 
Rich-mond, and ev-er-y 
one hoped for the best. 

Time af-ter time 



Grant's men made at- 
tacks up-on Lee's works, 
but were al-ways sent 
back fast-er than they 
came, by his watch-ful 
men. 

The shells from Grant's 
big guns fell in-to the cit-y 
of Pe-ters-burg day af-ter 
clay, burst-ing in-to the 
church-es and hous-es, 
and mak-ing the peo-ple 
flee for their lives. 

One day, as Gen-er-al 
Lee was sit-tinor on a 
chair un-der a tree at 
his head-quar-ters, the 
" Clay House," the balls 
fell so thick a-bout him 
that his aids beo^^ed him 
to seek a saf-er place. 
He at last mount-ed his 
horse and rode a-way. 



60 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



A mo-ment af-ter, a gay 
young sol-dier sat down 
in the chair and tilt-ed it 
back, say-ing, "I'll see if 
/ can fill Lee's place for 
a-while." Just then a ball 
struck the front round of 
the seat of the chair and 
cut it in twain. If Lee 
had been there, with the 
chair up-on the ground, 
he would have been bad- 
ly hurt. All thanked 
God that he was safe. 

On June 22d, the Con- 
fed-er-ates un-der Gen- 
er-al Ma-hone made a 
sal-ly from their lines and 
gave the Fed-er-als a 
great sur-prise. As the 
South-ern shot and shell 
burst up-on them, they 
fled back in-to their lines 



and the Con-fed-er-ates 
brought off two thou-sand 
pris-on-ers, four can-non 
and eight flags. 

On the same day, there 
was a fight at Reams' Sta- 
tion, in which the Fed- 
er-als were put to flight 
and lost twelve guns and 
one thou-sand men. 

All this time. Grant 
was mak-ino: earth-works 
and forts, and at last car- 
ried out a ver-y cru-el 
plan. From a spot out 
of sight, he had a mine 
dug un-til it reached un- 
der one of the Con-fed- 
er-ate forts. In that hole 
he had placed a blast of 
eight thou-sand pounds 
of pow-der. His plan 
was to blow a hole in 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



61 



Lee's lines and then rush 
in with a large band of 
men and take the cit-y. 

Gen-er-al Lee found 
out that they were dig- 
ging the mnie and where 
it was, and had a strong 
line made in the rear, 
while biir auns were 
placed so as to fire a-cross 
the breach when the mine 
was sprung. 

At that time there were 
on-ly thn'-teen thou-sand 
men in the trench-es at 
Pe-ters-burg, as Gen-er- 
al Lee had been forced 
to send some of his troops 
to the north of the James 
to check a move which 
Grant had made on pur- 
pose to draw off Lee's 
men from the mine. 



Just at dawn, Ju-ly 30, 
the blast was fired. A 
great roar was heard, and 
then two hun-dred and 
fif-ty-six men from South 
Car-o-li-na and twen- 
ty-two from Pe-ters- 
burg, with guns, large 
mass-es of earth, stones 
and logs, were thrown 
high in-to the air. A 
breach one hun-dred and 
thir-ty-five feet long, nine- 
ty feet wide, and thir-ty 
feet deep, had been made 
in the Con-fed-er-ate 
lines. Those near the 
spot were at first stunned, 
and those far a-way could 
not think what the noise 
meant. 

Grant's guns fired at 
once all a-long the line, 



62 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



and a band of men 
marched out to rush in 
through the breach. 
When they had rushed 
a-cross the space to the 
gap, they found a deep 
pit at their feet. 

The Con-fed -er-ates 
had now gained their 
wits, and at once o- 
pened fire on them. 
Down in- to the pit 
they sprang to get out 
of the storm of shot and 
shell; but when there, 
they could not get out. 
Band af-ter band of Fed- 
er-als were sent for-ward 
to charge the works, but 
they ei-ther fell in-to the 
Cra-ter or ran back to 
their own lines. 

Two hours had now 



passed, when black troops 
were sent to seize the 
o^uns which were do-inor 
such dead-ly work. 
They marched brave -ly 
up, but the Con-fed-er- 
ate fire was too hot for 
them and they ran for 
their lives — some in-to 
the Cra-ter, and some 
back to their own lines. 
White troops were a-gain 
sent for-ward, but they, 
too, were driv-en back. 
All this tune the Cra-ter 
was full of wound-ed, 
strug-ghng and dy-ing 
men, up-on whom the 
hot sun beat and shot 
poured. 

At last Gen-er-al Lee 
rode up, and soon af-ter, 
by his or-ders, Gen-er-al 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



63 



Ma-hone, with Wei-si- 
ger's and Wright's brig- 
ades, came up and 
charged with a yell up-on 
the Fed-er-als who had 
for the first time reached 
the breast-works. There 
was a fierce hand-to-hand 
fight, but the Fed-er-als 
were quick- ly forced 
back. 

All hon-or is due to 
the few men who had so 
brave-ly held the breach 
un-til help came. 

Just at this time a white 
flag was seen to float a- 
bove the side of the Cra- 
ter, which told that some 
were a-live down there 
and read-y to give up. 

In this strange fight 
Grant lost a-bout four 



tkou-sa7td men and Lee 
a-bout four hun-dred. 

The pluck and skill of 
Lee and a few men had 
foiled a well-laid plan and 
showed what these brave 
he-roes could do af-ter 
years of toil and bat-tie. 

Lee now thought that 
if he would a-gain send 
troops to threat-en Wash- 
ing-ton, he might cause 
Grant to move some of 
his large ar-my there, and 
thus give him (Lee) a 
chance to hurl back the 
hosts of Grant from 
Rich-mond. So he sent 
Gen-er-al Ear-ly down 
the Val-ley in-to Ma-ry- 
land with on-ly ten thou- 
sand men. 

They went as fast as 



64 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



they could, and on July 
9th met, at Mo-noc-a-cy 
Bridge, Gen-er-al Lew 
Wal-lace with sev-en 
thou-sand men. Hav-ino^ 
whipped him and tak-en 
from him two thou-sand 
men, Ear-ly marched on 
to Wash-ing-ton. 

On the 10th, his troops 
marched thir-ty miles, and 
on the 11th were in front 
of Wash-ing-ton. But 
his force was too small 
and too much worn out 
to try to at-tack the cit-y. 
He cool-ly camped in 
front of it all day, and 
at night, af-ter a fight 
with some Fed-er-al 
troops sent to catch him, 
went back in-to Vir-gin- 
i-a. 



This raid of Ear-ly's 
did not move Grant. He 
left Mr. Lin-coln to take 
care of Wash-ino--ton and 
kept the most of his men 
massed in front of Lee's 
lines. 

It was a- bout this 
time that the Fed-er-al 
Gen-er-al Sher-i-dan 
passed up the Val-ley and 
burned two thou-sand 
barns filled with wheat 
and hay, and sev-en-ty 
mills filled with flour. 
He al-so drove off' and 
killed four thou-sand head 
of stock. The boast was 
that '' if a crow wants to 
fly down the Val-ley he 
must car-ry his food 
a-long." 

This was a part of the 



THE LIFB OF GBN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



65 



plan to crush and starve 
Lee, for a great part of 
his flour and meat was 
sent from the Val-ley. 

Af-ter man-y tri-als, on 
Au-gust 18th Grant at 
last got hold of the Wel- 
don rail-road, which 
brought sup-plies from 
the south. This was a 
great blow to Lee. 

In the fall of this year, 
when meat was scarce, 
Gen-er-al Wade Hamp- 
ton sent a note to Gen-er- 
al Lee, tell-ing him that 
there was a laro-e drove of 
beeves m the rear of 
Grant's ar-my and asked 
leave to take a force of 
horse-men and drive out 
the cat-tie. Gen-er-al 
Lee at last told him to go, 



but urged him to take 
great care not to be 
caught. 

The men were well on 
their way when day broke, 
and rode on un-til dark, 
when they came to a halt 
in a road o-ver-hung by 
the branch-es of trees. 
Here they slept, men and 
horses, 'til just at dawn 
they sprang to their sad- 
dles, and with the well- 
known yell dashed in-to 
the camp of the foe. The 
Fed-er-als made a eood 
fight for their meat ; but 
at last fell back, and the 
Con-fed-er-ates cap- 
tured and drove out more 
than two thou-sand 
beeves. These they 
brought safe in-to camp 



66 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



af-ter hav-ing two fights 
and rid-ing one hun-dred 
miles. 

This fi*esh meat was a 
great treat to Lee's men 
and the cause of much fun. 

Lee's fines were so 
close to Grant's at one 
point that the men would 
of-ten call o-ver to each 
oth-er. The Fed-er-als 
called the Con-fed-er-ates 
John-ny Rebs, while the 
Con-fed-er-ate name for 
the Fed-er-als was Bil-ly 
Yanks. On the day af- 
ter the beef raid, one of 
Grant's men called out : 

'T say, John-ny Reb, 
come o-ver. I've got a 
new blue suit for you." 

'' Blue suit ? " growled 
out John-ny. 



**Yes," said the oth-er, 
'' take off those greas-y 
but-ter-nut clothes. I 
would, if I were you." 

" Nev-er you mind the 
grease, Bil-ly Yank," 
drawled out the Con-fed- 
er-ate, 'T got that otcfn 
them beeves d yourny 

Pop went the Fed-er- 
al's gun, and the Con-fed- 
er-ate was not slow to 
pop back at him. 

Gen-er-al Lee's life 
was now full of care ; as 
soon as one at-tack on his 
lines was o-ver, an-oth-er 
was be-ofun. He lived in 
a tent and would go down 
to the trench-es him-self 
to see how his men were 



o^et-tino- on. 



An old sol-dier re-lates 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



6\ 



that one day he came in- 
to the trench-es when the 
fir-ing was quite rap-id. 
The men did not dare to 
cheer, lest they might 
bring a hot-ter fire fi-om 
the foe, but they crowd-eel 
a-round hmi and beo-o-ed 
him to go back. But he 
calm-ly asked af-ter their 
health and spoke words 
of cheer. Then he 
walked to a bisf eun and 
asked the lieu-ten-ant to 
fire, so that he might see 
its range and work. The 
of-fi-cer said, with tears in 
his eyes, "Gen-er-al, don't 
or-der me to fire this crun 
while you are here. They 
will o-pen fire o-ver there 
with all those bie euns 
and you will sure-ly get 



hurt. Go back out of 
range and I'll fire all day." 
Gen-er-al Lee was ereat- 
ly touched by this, and 
went back, while the men 
quick-ly fired off the huge 



gun. 



Lee not on-ly need-ed 
men, but food for those he 
had. Man-y men died 
from cold and want. 

The win-tcr of 1864 
and '65 was a sad one for 
Lee and the South. 
There were no more men 
in the South to take the 
place of those who had 
been killed. 

The corn and wheat of 
the South had been burnt 
and their cat-tie killed by 
the North-ern ar-mies. 
The peo-ple sat down to 



68 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



emp-ty ta-bles and had no 
more food to send their 
men. 

Mrs. Lee, in her sick 
chair in Rich-moncl, 
"with large heart and 
small means " knit socks, 
which she would send at 
once to the bare-foot-ed 
men. 

On Jan-u-a-ry 10, 1865, 
Gen-er-al Lee writes to 
Mrs. Lee : 

" Yes-ter-day three lit- 
tle girls walked in-to my 
room, each with a small 
bas-ket. The eld-est had 
some fresh eggs, the sec- 
ond some pick-les, and 
the third some pop-corn, 
which had o^rown m her 
gar-den. * * They 
had with them a young 



maid with a block of soap 
made by her moth-er. 
They were the daugh-ters 
of a Mrs. Not-ting-ham, 
a ref-u-o^ee from North- 
amp-ton coun-ty. * * 
I had not had so nice a 
vis-it for a long^ tmie. 
I was a-ble to fill their 
bas-kets with ap-ples and 
begged them to bring me 
here-af-ter noth-ing but 
kiss-es, and to keep the 
eggs, corn, etc., for them- 
selves." 

Lee's men were raor-aed 
and starv-ing, but they 
fought on 'til A-pril 1st, 
1865, when, at Five Forks, 
the left wmor of Grant's 
large ar-my swept a-round 
the rig"ht and rear of Lee, 



and ma 



de h 



mi give up 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



60 



Rich-mond and Pe-ters- 
buror. 

When the South-ern 
troops were leav-ing 
Rich-mond, by law of 
Con-oTess the to-bac-co 
hous-es were set on fire 
to keep them fi'om fall-ing 
in-to the hands of the foe. 
The fire spread, and Mrs. 
Lee's house was in dan- 
ger of be-inor burnt. 
Friends rushed in and 
wished to move her to a 
place of safe-ty, but she 
would not go. The fire 
had no ter-ror for her as 
she thought of her hus- 
band with his band of 
rag-ged, starv-ing men 
march-inor with their fa- 
ces turned from Rich- 
mond. White clouds of 



dense smoke, with the 
light of fire in their folds, 
hung a-bove the cit-}^ as 
the Fed-er-al ar-my, with 
wav-ino^ flacrs and clash- 
ing mu-sic, marched in 
and stacked arms in the 
Capitol Square. 

In the mean-time, Lee 
marched on to-warcls A- 
me-li-a Court-House, 
where he had or-dered 
meat and bread to be sent 
for his men. But when 
he got there he found that 
it had been sent else- 
where, and now real want 
set in. His men had 
noth-ing to eat but corn, 
which they would parch 
at night and eat as they 
marched a-long. Gen- 
er-al Lee's plan had been 



70 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



to march south and join 
Gen-er-al John-ston, but 
some time had been lost 
in look-ino- for food, and 
Gen-er-al Grant's hosts 
were near at hand. 

So Lee fell back to- 
wards Lynch-burg, but 
on A-pril 9th, 1865, be- 
ing en-tire-ly siu'-round- 
ed by Grant's vast ar-my, 
he and his few rag-ged 
men sur-ren-dered to Gen- 
er-al Grant at Ap-po- 
mat-tox Court- House. 
Lee had on-ly eio'/il thoM- 
sand men, while Grant's 
ar-my num-bered about 
two hun-dred thoit-sand. 

In all these bat-ties, of 
which I have told you, 
Gen-er-al Lee had nev-er 
been real-ly de-feat-ed ; 



but he gave up at last be- 
cause he had no more men 
and no more food. The 
North-ern gen-er-als had 
all the men and food they 
asked for, as they had the 
world to draw from ; but 
the South, be-ing block- 
ad- ed, or shut in by 
North-ern ships of war, 
could not get what she 
need-ed from oth-er lands. 

Lee did all that cour- 
age and oen-ius could do 
a-eainst such odds, and 
was, with-out doubt, the 
great-est com-mand-er of 
his time. 

Col-o-nel Ven-a-ble, 
an of-fi-cer on Gen-er-al 
Lee's staff, tells this sto-ry 
of the sur-ren-der: 
^'When I told Gen-er-al 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



71 



Lee that the troops in 
front were not a-ble to 
fight their way out, he 
said ' Then, there is noth- 
ing left me but to go and 
see Gen-er-al Grant, and 
I would rath-er die a 
thou- sand deaths! " 

An-oth-er of-fi-cer says 
that when Lee was think- 
ing of the sur-ren-der he 
ex-claimed, '' How eas- 
i-ly I could get rid of all 
this and be at rest ! I 
have on-ly to ride a-long 
the lines and all will be 
o-ver. But," he add-ed 
quick-ly, '' // is our dti-ty 
to live, for what will be- 
come of the wom-en and 
chil-dreu of the South if 
we are not here to sup- 
port and pro-tect them ?" 



So, with a heart burst- 
ing with grief, he once 
more did his du-ty. He 
went at once to Gen-er-al 
Grant and sur-ren-dered 
him-self and his few re- 



main-ing men. 



By the terms of the 
sur-ren-der, Lee's men 
gave up their fire-arms, 
but all who had hors-es 
took them home, "to work 
their lit-tle farms." 

Gen-er-al Grant, it 
must be said, was most 
kind to Gen-er-al Lee 
and his men. He did 
not ask for Gen-er-al 
Lee's sword, nor did Lee 
of-fer it to him ; nei-ther 
did he re-quire Lee's men 
to march up to stack 
their guns be-tween ranks 



72 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



of Fed-er-als with flags 
fly-ing and bands play- 
ing. Lee's men sim-ply 
went to pla-ces which were 
point-ed out and stacked 
their guns. Their of-fi- 
cers then signed a pa-role 
not to fight a-gain a-gainst 
the U-ni-ted States. 
They were then free to go 
back to their homes, 
which, in some ca-ses, 
were burnt — blight and 
want be-ing on ev-er-y 
side. 

Af-ter all. Grant did 
not go to Lee's camp or 
to Rich-mond to ex-ult 
o-ver the men who had 
so of-ten met him in bat- 
tle; but he mount-ed his 
horse, and, with his staff, 
rode to Wash-ing-ton. 



Be-fore go-ing, he sent to 
Lee twen-ty-five thou- 
sand ra-tions; for, as I 
have told you, Lee's men 
had noth-ing to eat but 
parched corn. 

Af-ter the sur-ren-der, 
Lee rode out a-mong his 
men, who pressed up to 
him, ea-ger to "touch his 
per-son, or e-ven his 
horse," and tears fell down 
the pow-der-stained 
cheeks of the strono; men. 
Slow-ly he said : 

" Men, we have fouo-ht 
the war to-geth-er ; I have 
done my best for you ; 
my heart is too full to say 
more." 

And then in si-lence, 
with lift-ed hat, he rode 
through the weep-ing ar- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



73 



my to-wards his home in 
Rich-mond. 

As Gen-er-al Lee rode 
on to-wards Rich-mond, 
he was calm and his 
thoughts dwek much more 
on the state of the poor 
peo-ple at whose hous-es 
he stopped than up-on his 
own bad for-tune. When 
he found that all a-long 
the road the peo-ple were 
olad to see him and crave 

o o 

him glad-ly of what they 
had to eat, he said, 
''These good peo-ple are 
kind — too kind. They 
do too much — more than 
they are able to do — for 
us. 

At a house which he 
reached just at night, a 



poor worn -an gave him a 
nice bed; but, with a kind 
shake of the head, he 
spread his blank-et and 
slept up-on the floor. 

The next day he 
stopped at the house of 
his broth-er, Charles Car- 
ter Lee ; but, when night 
came, left the house and 
slept in his old black 
wag-on. He could not 
give up at once the hab- 
its of a sol-dier. 

When, at last, the cit-y 
of Rich-mond was in 
sight, he rode a-head with 
a few of his of-fi-cers. A 
sad sight met his view. 
In the great fire of the 3d 
of A-pril, a large part of 
the cit-y had been burned, 



74 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



and, as he rode up Main 
street, he saw on-ly mass- 
es of bhick ru-ins. 

As he rode slow-ly, 
some of the peo-ple saw 
him, and at once the news 
flashed through the streets 
that Gen-er-al Lee had 
come. 

The peo-ple ran to 
greet hmi, and showed by 
cheers and the wav-ing of 
hats and hand-ker-chiefs 
how much they loved 
hmi. 

Gen-er-al Lee now 
went home and there a- 
gain took up his du-ty. 
He had fought for the 
South, which had failed 
to gain the vic-to- ry. He 
thouoht that it was now 



the du-ty of ev-er-y good 
man to a-void hate and 
mal-ice and do all that he 
could to build up the 
waste pla-ces of his dear 
land. He had been a 
sol-dier for for-ty years, 
and, for the first time since 
man-hood, was m pri-vate 
Hfe. 

He now en-joyed the 
com-pa-ny of his wife and 
chil-dren, and as long as 
he kept his pa-role and 
the laws in force where 
he lived, was thought to 
be safe. There were, 
how-ev-er, steps tak-en to 
try him for trea-son ; but 
Gen-er-al Grant went to 
the pres-i-dent and 
told him that his hon-or 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



75 



was pledged for the safe- 
ty of Gen-er-al Lee, and 
that he wished \\\m to be 
let a-lone. So, Gen-er- 
al Grant's re-quest was 
o-rant-ed and no tri-al 
took place. 

Af-ter some months 
the Lee fam-i-ly left Rich- 



mond and went to live at 
the house of a friend in 
Pow-ha-tan coun-ty. 

The spring and sum- 
mer of 1865 was spent by 
our he-ro in tak-ing the 
rest which he so much 
need-eel. 



ReP-u-gee', one who leaves home for safe-ty. 

Siege, the act of be-set-ting a for-ti-fied place. 

Hurled, thrown. 

Gen-ius, a great mind. 

Sur-ren'-der, the act of yield-ing to an-oth-er. 



76 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 



In Oc-to-ber, 186S, 
Gen-er-al Lee be-came 
Pres-i-dent of Wash-ing- 
ton Col-lege, in Lex-ing- 
ton, Vir-gin-i-a. Man-y 
oth-er pla-ces of trust 
were of-fered him, but he 
chose to be-come a lead- 
er of the young men of 
the South in the paths of 
peace and learn-ing, as he 
had so no-bly led them 
in times of war. 

Gen-er-al Lee rode on 
his war-horse, Trav-el-er, 
from Pow-ha-tan coun-ty 
to Lex-inor-ton in four 
days. As he drew rein 



in front of the vil-lage 
inn, an old sol-dier knew 
him, gave the mil-i-ta-ry 
sa-lute, and, plac-ing one 
hand up-on the bri-dle 
and the oth-er up-on 
the stir-rup, stood and 
wait-ed for hmi to dis- 
mount. 

On Oc-to-ber 2d, 1865, 
Gen-er-al Lee took the 
oath of of-fice, be-fore Wil- 
liam White, Esq., jus-tice 
of the peace. The Gen- 
er-al stood, dressed in a 
plain suit of grey, his 
arms folded, and his eyes 
calm-ly fixed up-on Judge 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



77 



Brock-en-brough, as he 
read the oath of of-fice. 

The great chief was 
now changed in-to a col- 
lege pres-i-dent. ''I 
have," said he, ''a task 
which I can-not for-sake." 
That task was not ea-sy, 
for the col-lege had lost 
much dur-ing the war and 
now had to be built up in 
ev-er-y way. 

He went to work with 
great skill and en-er-gy, 
and soon all felt that a 
great man was lead-ing 
them. 

Some one has apt-ly 
said, '' Suns seem larg-er 
when they set;" so it was 
with Lee. At this time 
of his life he ap-pears 
no-bler and grand-er than 



ev-er be-fore. In his qui- 
et stud-y, a-way from the 
noise of the world, he 
gave his time and tal-ents 
to the young men of his 
dear South. His earn-est 
wish was to make Wash- 
ing-ton Col-lege a great 
seat of learn-ing, and for 
this he worked and made 
wise plans. 

In March, 1866, he 
went to Wash -inor- ton 
Cit-y to ap-pear as a wit- 
ness be-fore the com-mit- 
tee which was in-quir-ing 
in-to the state of things in 
the South. This was his 
first vis-it to any of the 
cit-ies since the war, and 
it caused much com-ment. 

Gen-er-al Fitz. Lee 
tells us that the day af-ter 



78 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



his re-turn, he pro-posed 
a walk with one of his 
daugh-ters, who said, In 
fun, that she did not ad- 
mire the new hat which 
he was a-bout to put on. 
"You do not hke my 
hat?" said he; "why, 
there were a thou-sand 
peo-ple in Wash-ing-ton 
the oth-er day ad-mir-ing 
this hat." This was the 
on-ly time that he spoke 
of the crowds of peo-ple 
who sought him while in 
that cit-y. 

When his neph-ew, 
Gen-er-al Fitz. Lee, wrote 
to know what he thought 
of hav-ing the South-ern 
dead moved from the 
field of Get-tys-burg, he 
said, "I am not in fa-vor 



of mov-ing the ash-es of 
the dead un-less for a 
wor-thy ob-ject, and I 
know of no fit-ter rest- 
ing-place for a sol-clier 
than the field on which 
he so no-bly laid down 
his life." 

It is some-times asked 
if Gen-er-al Lee was con- 
tent in the qui-et of his 
home at Lex-ing-ton. 
This is what he wrote to 
a friend : 

" For my own part, I 
much en -joy the charms 
of civ-il life, and find, too 
late, that I have wast-ed 
the best years of my 
life." 

In his life as Col-lege 
Pres-i-dent, du-ty was, as 
ev-er, his watch-word. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



79 



He knew each stu-clent 
by name, and just how 
well he stud-ied. 

Once, when asked how 
a cer-tain young man was 
eet-tinor a-lonor he said : 
" He is a ver-y qui-et and 
or-der-ly young man, but 
he seems ver-y care-fttl 
not to in- jure the health 
of his fa-ther s son. 
Now, I do not want our 
young men to in-jure their 
health, but I want them 
to come as near it as pos- 
si-ble." 

One of his friends re- 
lates that, e-ven a-midst 
this bus-y life at col-lege, 
he found time to be the 
most po-lite gen-tle-man 
in town. " How of-ten 
have I seen him," says 



this friend, '' in the stores 
and shops of Lex-ing-ton, 
talk-ing pleas-ant-ly with 
each new com-er; or, 
walk-ino- a mile through 
mud and snow to call on 
some hum-ble fam-i-ly, 
who will hand it down as 
an e-vent in their lives 
that they had a vis-it from 
Gen-er-al Lee ! " 

See-ing, dur-ing the 
first year, that the col-lege 
chap-el was not large e- 
nough, he at once be-gan 
to plan for a new one. 
He chose the site for it in 
front of the oth-er hous- 
es, so that it miorht be in 
full view. He then had 
the plan drawn un-der his 
own eye, and did not rest 
un-til it was fin-ished and 



80 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



o-penecl for the ser-vice 
of God. 

In this chap-el his 
bod-y now rests, as I shall 
tell you here-af-ter. 

Ear-ly in 1870, in the 
midst of these la-bors, his 
health be-gan to fail. 
There was a flush up-on 
his cheek, and an air of 
wea-ri-ness a-bout him 
which a - 1 a r m e d his 
friends. Rheu-ma-tism 
of the heart and oth-er 
parts of the bod-y had set 
in, and in March, 1870, 
he went south "to look 
up-on oth-er scenes and 
en-joy the breez-es in the 
'land of sun and flow- 
ers.'" His daugh-ter 
Ag-nes went with him. 

On this trip he once 



more went to see his fa- 
ther's grave, on an is-land 
off the coast of Geor-gi-a, 
where, you re-mem-ber, 
that Gen-er-al Hen-ry 
Lee was tak-en when so 
ill on board ship, and 
where he died. They 
placed fresh flow-ers up- 
on the grave, which they 
found in good or-der, 
though the house had 
been burnt and the is-land 
laid waste. 

His health seemed bet- 
ter when a-gain at home ; 
but soon his step was 
slow-er, and the flush up- 
on his cheek be-gan to 
deep-en. " A no-ble life 
was draw-ing to a close." 

On the morn-inor of 
Oc-to-ber 12, 1870, the 



/ / 

/ / 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



81 



news flashed o-ver the 
wires that Gen-er-al Lee 
was dead. He had tak- 
en cold at a ves-try meet- 
inor. The church was 
cold and damp, and a 
storm was rag-uig out- 
side. He grew chil-ly, 
and when he reached 
home was un-a-ble to 
speak. 

Mrs. Lee wrote thus 
of his last hours : 

''My hus-band came 
In while we were at tea, 
and I asked where he had 
been, as we had wait-ed 
some tmie for hmi. He 
did not re-ply, but stood 
up as if to say grace. 
No words came from his 
lips, but with a sad smile 
he sat down in his chair." 



He could not speak ! 
A bed was at once 
brouorht to the clin-ino-- 
room, and the doc-tors 
sent for. At first he 
grew bet-ter, but soon a 
chano^e came for the 
worse. 

He rare-ly spoke ex- 
cept when sleep-ing, and 
then his thouohts were 
with his much-loved sol- 
diers on the "dread-ful 
bat-tle-fields." A-mone 
his last words were, 
"Tell Hill he must come 
up. 

Once when Gen-er-al 
Cus-tis Lee said some- 
thinor about his o-et-tine 
well, he shook his head 
and point-ed up- ward. 
When his doc-tor said, to 



82 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



cheer him, "How do you 
feel to-day, Gen-er-al ? " 

Gen-er-al Lee said 
slow-ly, ''I feel bet-ter." 

The doc-tor then said : 

** You must make haste 
and get well. Trav-el-er 
has been stand-ing so 
lone in the sta-ble that he 
needs ex-er-cise." 

The Gen-er-al made 
no re-ply, but shook his 
head and closed his eyes. 
Once or twice he put 
a-side his med-i-cine, say- 
ing, *' It is no use." 

On Oc-to-ber 10th, a- 
bout mid-night, he was 
seized with a chill and his 
pulse be-came fee-ble and 
rap-id. The next day he 
was seen to be sink-ing. 
He knew those a-round 



him, but was not a-ble to 
speak. Soon af-ter nine 
o'clock on the morn-ing 
of the 12th, he closed his 
eyes on earth-ly things 
and his pure soul took its 
flight to God. 

It was thought that the 
strain and hard-ships of 
war, with sor-row for the 
''Lost Cause" and the 
griefs of his friends, had 
caused his death. Yet, 
to those who saw his calm- 
ness in all the tri-als of 
life, it did not seem true 
that his great soul had 
been worn a-wayby them. 

The col-lege chap-el 
was cho-sen by Mrs. Lee 
as a bur-i-al place for her 
hus-band, and one-and- 
a-half o'clock P. M. on 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



83 



the 13th of Oc-to-ber was 
the time fixed on for mov- 
ing the re-mains to the 
chap-el, where they were 
to he in state un-til Sat-ur- 
day, the 15th of Oc-to-ber, 
the day for the bur-i-al. 

At the hour named, a 
long pro-ces-sion, with 
Pro-fes-sor J. J. White 
as chief mar-shal, was 
formed. Old sol-diers 
formed an es-cort of hon- 
or. Just af-ter the es-cort 
came the hearse, pre- 
ce-ded by the cler-gy 
and twelve pall-bear- 
ers. In rear of the 
hearse, Trav-el-er, the 
iron-grey war-horse of 
Gen-er-al Lee, was led 
by two old sol-diers. 
Then fol-lowed a long line 



of stu-dents, ca-dets and 
peo-ple. The bod-y was 
borne to the col -lege 
chap-el and laid in state 
up-on the dais, the peo- 
ple pass-ing slow-ly by, 
that each one might look 
up-on the face of the 
dead. The bod-y was 
clad in a sim-ple suit of 
black and lay in a cof-fin, 
strewed by lov-ing hands 
with rare, pale flow-ers. 
The chap -el was then 
placed in charge of the 
guard of hon-or This 
guard of stu-dents kept 
watch by the cof-fin day 
and nieht. 

On the 14th, a fu-ner- 
al ser-vice was held in 
the chap-el ; and on the 
15th of Oc-to-ber, as I 



84 



711 L LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



have said, the bod-y was 
borne to the toml). The 
flag of Vir-gin-i-a hung 
at half-mast a-bove the 
col-lege and a deep gloom 
rest-ed up-on all. 

As the pro-ces-sion 
moved off, the bells of the 
town be-gan to toll, and 
the Vir-gin-i-a Mil-i-ta-ry 
In-sti-tute bat-ter-y fired 
min-ute-guns. All was 
sim-ple and w^ith-out dis- 
play. Not a flag was to 
be seen a-long the line. 
The Rev. J. Wil-liam 
Jones tells us as fol-low^s : 

"The old sol-diers 
w-ore their cit-i-zen's 
drees, with black rib-bon 
in the la-pel of their 
coats; and Trav-el-er, 
with trap-pings of mourn- 



ing on his sad-die, was 
a-gam led by two old sol- 
diers. The Vir-gln-i-n 
Mfl-i-ta-ry In-sti-tute was 
ver-y beau-ti-ful-1 v 
draped, and from its tur- 
rets hung at half-mast, and 
draped in mourn-ing, the 
flags of all the States of 
the late South-ern Con- 
fed-er-a-cy. 

''When the pro-ces- 
sion reached the In-sti- 
tute, it passed the corps of 
ca-dets drawm up m line, 
and a guard of hon-or 
pre-sent-ed arms as the 
hearse went by. When 
it reached the chap-el, 
where a large throng had 
gath-ered, the stu-dents 
and ca-dets, a-bout six 
hun-dred and fif-ty strong, 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



85 



marched in-to the left door 
and aisle past the re- 
mains and out by the 
right aisle and door to 
their prop-er place. 

"The rest of the line 
then filed in, the fam-i-ly, 
with Drs. Bar-ton and 
Mad-i-son,and Col-o-nels 
W. H. Tay-lor and C. 
S. Ven-a-ble, mem-bers 
of Gen-er-al Lee's staff 
dur-ing the war, were 
seated just in front of the 
pul-pit, and the cler-gy 
and the Fac-ul-ties of the 
Col-lege and In-sti-tute 
had places on the plat- 
form." 

The cof-fin was a-gain 
cov-ered with flow-ers and 



ever-o^reens. 



Then the Rev. Dr. 



Pen -die- ton, the dear 
friend of Gen-er-al Lee, 
his Chief of Ar-til-ler-y 
dur-ing the war, and his 
rec-tor the past five years, 
read the beau-ti-ful bur- 
i-al ser-vice of the Epis- 
co-pal Church. There 
was no ser-mon, and noth- 
ing said be-sides the sim- 
ple ser-vice, as Gen-er-al 
Lee had wished. 

When the bod-y had 
been placed in the vault, 
the chap-lain read the 
con-clud-ing ser-vice from 
the bank on the south-ern 
side of the chap-el, and 
then the grand old hymn, 

"How firm a found-a-tion, ye 
saints of the Lord/' 

was sung by the peo-ple. 
The vault is of brick 



86 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



and just reach-es the floor 
of the li-bra-ry. Up-on 
the white mar-ble are 
these words : 

" RoB-ERT Ed-ward Lee, 

Born Jan-u-a-ry 19, 1807; 

Died Oc-to-ber 12, 1870." 

The white mar-ble top 
has now been re-placed 
by the beau-ti-ful re-cum- 
bent stat-ue by Val-en- 
tine, a Vir-gin-i-a sculp- 
tor. 

All the South mourned 
for Lee. Bells were 
tolled in cit-ies and vil- 
la-ges, and meet-ings were 
held to ex-press the grief 
of the peo-ple. 

This is what a lit-tle 
girl wrote to Mrs. Lee : 

" I have heard of Gen- 
er-al Lee, your hus-band, 



and of all his great and 
no-ble deeds dur-ing the 
war. I have al-so heard 
late-ly of his death. I 
have read in the pa-pers 
that col-lec-tions are be- 
ing made for the Lee 
mon-u-ment. I have 
asked my moth-er to let 
me send some mon-ey 
that I earned my-self. I 
made some of the mon-ey 
by keep-ing the door shut 
last win-ter, and the rest 
I made by dig-ging up 
grass in the gar-den. I 
send you all I have. I 
wish it was more. I am 
nine now. 

*' Re-spect-ful-ly, 
*'Mag-gie Mc-In-tyre." 

Man-y no-ble men and 
wom-en al-so wrote to 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



87 



Mrs. Lee, and mon-ey 
was giv-en, un-til now 
there are two beau-ti-ful 
stat-ues of him — one in 
Lex-ing-ton, where he Is 
bur-ied, and the oth-er in 
Rich-mond, the cit-y he 
fouQrht so hard to save. 

Vir-ofin-i-a mourned for 
her no-ble son. The 
State Leg-is-la-ture 
passed a bill mak-ing Jan- 
u-a-ry 19th, the birth-day 
of Rob-ert E. Lee, a le- 
gal hol-i-day. 

On that day, all o-ver 
the South, meet-ings are 
held in mem-o-ry of him, 
where speech-es are made 
by great men, and chil- 
dren re-cite po-ems which 
hon-or his name and 
deeds. 



Per-haps no man has 
ev-er lived, so great, so 
good, so un-self-ish as 
Lee. Du-ty was the key- 
note of his life. In the 
midst of his great-ness he 
was hum-ble, sim-ple, and 
gen-tle. He loved lit-tle 
chil-dren wher-ev-er he 
met them. 

"One day, dur-ing the 
war, a num-ber of lit-tle 
girls were roll-ing hoops 
on the side-walks in 
Rich-mond, when Gen- 
er-al Lee came rid-ing: 
to-wards them. They 
stopped play-ing to gaze 
at so great a man. To 
their sur-prise, he threw 
his rein to his cou-ri-er, 
dis-mount-ed, and kissed 
ev-er-y one of them. 



88 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Then mount-ing, he rode 
a-way, with a s u n - n y 
smile of chikl-hoocl in his 
heart and plans of great 
bat-ties in his mind." 

"While in Pe-ters- 
burg, in the win-ter of 
1864, he went to preach- 
ing one day at a crowd- 
ed church, and saw a lit- 
tle o'irl dressed in fad-ed 
gar-ments stand-ing just 
in-side the door and look- 
ing for a seat. ' Come 
with me, my lit-tle la-dy,' 
said the great sol-dier, 
'and you shall sit by me.' 
Thus the orreat chief and 
poor child sat side by 
side." 

Once when rid-ing in 
the moun-tains with one 
of his daugh-ters, they 



came up-on a group of 
chil-dren who ran at the 
sight of him. Gen-er-al 
Lee called them back and 
asked : 

" Why are you run- 
ning a-way ? Are you a- 
fraid of me? " 

" Oh ! no, sir ; but we 
are not dressed nice e- 
nough to see you." 

"Why, who do you 
think I am ? " 

"You are Gen-er-al 
Lee. We know you by 
your pic-ture." 

Af-ter the war, so great 
was the love of the peo- 
ple for Lee, al-most ev- 
er-y home had some pic- 
ture of their great chief. 

Gen-er-al Lee knew all 
the chil-dren in Lex-ing- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



89 



ton whom he met in his 
walks and rides, and it 
was charm-mg to see their 
joy when he would meet 
them. 

Once, when call-ing 
up-on the wid-ow of Gen- 
er-al A. P. Hill, her lit-tle 
girl met him at the door 
and held out her pup-py, 
which she had named af- 
ter our he-ro. "O, Gen- 
er-al Lee," she cried, 
''here IS 'Bob-by Lee'; do 
kiss him." The o^reat 
man made be-lieve to kiss 
him and the child was de- 
light-ed. 

In one of the Sun-clay- 
schools of Lex-ing-ton a 
prize was of-fered to the 
child who should brino- in 
the most pu-pils. 



A lit-tle boy of five 
went for his friend, Gen- 
er-al Lee, to get him to 
go to his school. When 
told that Gen-er-al Lee 
went to an-oth-er school, 
he said with a deep sigh, 
" I am ver-y sor-ry. I 
wish he could go to our 
school, and be my new 
schol-ar." 

Gen-er-al Lee thoueht 
it quite fun-ny, and said 
kind-ly : 

"Ah ! C — — , we must 
all try to be ooocif Chris- 
tians — that is the ereat 
thing. I can't go to your 
school to be your new 
schol-ar to-day. But I 
am ver-y glad you asked 
me. It shows that you 
are zeal-ous in a good 



90 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



cause, and I hope that 
you will ev-er be so as 
you grow up. And I do 
not want you to think 
that I am too old to go to 
Sun-day-school. No one 
is ev-er too old to stud-y 
the truths of the Bi-ble." 

When he died, all the 
schools of Lex-Ing-ton 
were closed, and the chil- 
dren wept with the grown 
peo-ple when they heard 
that their kind friend was 
dead. 

A gen-tle-man tells this 
sto-ry, which is quite in 
keep-ing with his way of 
pleas-ing chil-dren: 

** When my lit-tle girl, 
a-bout four years old, 
heard of Gen-er-al Lee's 
death, she said to me, 



' Fa-ther, I can nev-er 
for-get Gen-er-al Lee.' 
I asked, 'Why?' 'Be- 
cause, when Mag-gie and 
I were play-ing at the gate 
the oth-er day, and Gen- 
er-al Lee was rid-ing by, 
he stopped and took off 
his hat and bowed to us 
and said, 'Young la-dies, 
don't you think this is the 
pret-ti-est horse you ev-er 
saw?' And we said it 
was a ver-y pret-ty horse. 
' Oh, no,' he said; ' I want 
to know wheth-er Trav- 
el-er is not the ver-y pret- 
ti-est horse you ev-er saw 
in your life.' And when 
we looked at him, and 
saw how white and gay 
he was, we said, 'Yes.' 
Then he laughed and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



91 



said, 'Well, if you think 
he is so pret-ty, I will just 
let you kiss him ' ; and 
then he rode off smil-ing, 
and I don't be-lieve I can 
ev-er for-o^et that." 

An-oth-er e^'n-tle-man, 
who was clerk of the Fac- 
ul-ty at Wash -ing- ton 
Col-lege, says that Gen- 
er-al Lee was ver-y care- 
ful a-bout lit-tle things. 
One day the clerk wrote 
a let-ter to some one at 
Gen-er-al Lee's re-quest, 
in which he used the term 
''our stu-dents." When 
Gen-er-al Lee looked at 
it, he said that he did not 
like the phrase "our stu- 
dents." He said that we 
had no prop-er-ty rights 
in the young men, and he 



thought it best to say, 
''the stu-dents," not ''otcr 
stu-dents." The clerk 
struck out with his pen 
the word "our" and wrote 
"the." He then brouorht 
the let-ter to Gen-er-al 
Lee. "This will not 
an-swer," said he. "I 
want you to write the let- 
ter o-ver." So the clerk 
had to make a fresh 
cop-y. 

One day Gen-er-al Lee 
di-rect-ed him to go to 
the Mess Hall and meas- 
ure for a stove-pipe. 
"Set the stove in its place 
on its legs," he said, "and 
meas-ure the height to a 
point op-po-site the flue- 
hole, and then the space 
from the joint to the wall." 



92 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



The man re-turned with 
the meas-ure. "Did you 
set the stove on its leo^s ?" 
asked the Gen-er-al. The 
clerk re-phed no; that 
the legs were packed up 
in-side the stove, and that 
he snii-ply al-lowed for 
the leers. "But I told 
you to put the stove on its 
legs and then meas-ure. 
Go back and do as you 
were told," said the Gen- 
er-al, who was al-ways 
kind but meant to be o- 
beyed. 

The same gen-tle-man 
re-mem-bers this a-mus- 
ing in-ci-dent: 

One day they saw a 
gen-tle-man com-mg up 
the lawn, and won-dered 
who he was. Gen-er-al 



Lee shook hands with 
him as though he knew 
him, and chat-ted for 
some time. He tried in 
vain to re-mem-ber his 
name. At length Rev. 
J. Wil-liam Jones, whose 
month it was to lead the 
ser-vices in the chap-el, 
came up and whis-pered 
to Gen-er-al Lee to in- 
tro-duce the strange cler- 
gy-man to hmi, so that he 
might ask him to con-duct 
the ser-vices in his place. 
But Gen-er-al Lee, with 
his own read-y tact, said: 
"Mr. Jones, it is time for 
ser-vice ; you had bet-ter 
go m the chap-el." 

Af-ter ser-vice, when 
he could do so with-out 
be-ing heard, Gen-er-al 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



93 



Lee asked Mr. Jones to 
find out the stran-ger's 
name. He had met hmi 
m the Mex-i-can war but 
could not re-call his name. 
Mr. Jones did so, and 
Gen-er-al Lee, stand-ing 
near, heard it, and then, 
with-out mak-ing it known 
that he had for-got-ten his 
fi'iend of the Mex-i-can 
war, in-tro-cluced him to 
those w^ h o were near. 
He could not think of 
hurt-ing the cler-gy-man's 
feel-ings by let-ting him 
know that he had been 
for-got-ten. 

Gen-er-al Lee w^as al- 
ways care-ful not to in-jure 
what be-longed to oth-ers. 

-A Reb-el Girl" tells 
this sto-ry of him : 



'' When in Ma-ry-land, 
he gave strict or-ders that 
no harm should be done 
to prop-er-ty, and was 
once seen to get down 
from his horse and put 
up a fence-rail which his 
men had thrown down." 

This sto-ry of Gen-er- 
al Lee went the rounds 
of the south-ern news-pa- 
pers in 1864 : 

" One ver-y cold morn- 
ing a young sol-dier, with 
his arm in a sling, in the 
cars go-ing to Pe-ters-burg 
was mak-ing great ef-forts 
to put on his o-ver-coat. 
\n the midst of his troub-le 
an of-fi-cer rose from his 
seat, went to him and 
kind-ly helped him, draw- 
ing the coat gent-ly o-ver 



94 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



the wound-ed arm, and 
then with a few kind 
words went back to his 
seat. 

'' Now, the of-fi-cer was 
not clad in a fine u-ni-form 
with a oilt wreath on his 
col-lar and man-y straps 
on his sleeves, but he had 
on a sim-ple suit of grey, 
with on-ly the three gilt 
stars which ev-er-y Con- 
fed-er-ate col-o-nel could 
wear. And yet, he was 
no oth-er than our chief 
gen-er-al, Rob-ert E. 
Lee, who is not brav-er 
than he is good and mod- 
est." 

In the win-ter of 1864, 
some of the cav-al-ry 
were moved to Char- 
lottes-ville, in or-der to 



get food for their hors-es, 
and not hav-ing much to 
do, the of-fi-cers be-gan to 
at-tend dances. Gen-er- 
al Lee, hear-ing of this, 
wrote to his son Rob-ert 
thus : 

" I am a-fraid that Fitz 
was anx-ious to get back 
to the ball. This is a bad 
time for such thinors. * * 
There are too man-y Lees 
on the committee. I 
like them all to be at bat- 
tles, but I can ex-cuse 
them at balls." 

It is said that, dur-ing 
the sev-en days' bat-tie, 
of which I have told 
you, he was sit-ting un- 
der a tree, the shades of 
e-ven-ino^ hid-iuQ^ e-ven 
the stars on his coat col- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



95 



lar, when a cloc-tor rode 
up and said : 

''Old man, I have 
chosen that tree for my 
field hos-pi-tal and I want 
you to get out of the 
way." 

*' I will glad-ly give way 
when the wound-ed come 
up, but in the mean-time, 
there is plen-ty of room 
for both of us," was the 
re-ply. 

The an-gry man was 
a-bout to make some re- 
tort when a staff of-fi-cer 
rode up and spoke to his 
**old man" as Gen-er-al 
Lee. 

The doc-tor then be- 
gan to make ex-cuse for 
his rude-ness, but Gen- 
er-al Lee said qui-et-ly : 



'' It is no mat-ter. Doc- 
tor ; there is plen-ty of 
room till your wound-ed 
come up." 

This sto-ry is of-ten 
told of him. In 1864, 
when Gen-er-al Lee was 
on the lines be-low Rich- 
mond, man-y sol-diers 
came near him and thus 
brought to them the fire 
of the foe. He said to 
the sol-diers : '' Men, you 
had bet-ter go in-to the 
back-yard ; they are fir- 
ing up here and you might 
get hurt." 

The men o-beyed, but 
saw their dear Gen-er-al 
walk a-cross the yard and 
pick up some ob-ject and 
place it in a tree o-ver his 
head. They found out 



96 



THE LIFE OF GES. ROBERT E. LEE. 



that the ob-ject he had 
risked his Hfe for was on- 
ly a Ht-tle bird which had 
fal-len out of its nest. 
God had giv-en the stern 
chief a heart so ten-der 
that he could pause a- 
mid a rain of shot and 
shell to care for a ti-ny 
fal-len bird-ling. 

Gen-er-al Lee dear-ly 
loved his hors-es. Once, 
when at the springs, he 
wrote to his clerk in Lex- 
ing-ton and sent this mes- 
sagfe to his horse Trav- 
el-er: "Tell hun I miss 
him dread-ful-ly." 

Trav-el-er lived on-ly 
two years af-ter the death 
of his mas-ter. In the 
sum-mer of 1872, when 
he was fif-teen years old, 



the fine, faith-ful an-i-mal, 
that had car-ried the Gen- 
er-al through the storms 
of war and the calm of 
his lat-ter years, died of 
lock-jaw in Lex-ing-ton. 
He was not-ed for his 
spring-y walk, high spir- 
it, and great strength. 
When a colt, he was 
called Jeff. Da-vis. The 
Gen - er - al changed h i s 
name to Trav-el-er. He 
was Lee's most fa-mous 
war-horse. 

Li the sum-mer of 1862 
he owned a beau-ti-ful 
war-horse called Rich- 
mond, giv-en to hmi by 
some friends in the cit-y 
of Rich-mond. But, to 
the grief of his mas-ter, 
this pet was short-lived ; 



THE LIFE OF GBN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



9: 



and what he writes af-ter 
his loss, sounds al-most as 
if he was look-nig back 
to the death of a friend : 

*' His la-bors are o-ver, 
and he is at rest. He 
car-ried me ver-y faith- 
ful-ly, and I shall nev-er 
have so beau-ti-ful an an- 
i-mal a-gain." 

Gen-er-al Lee was 
not-ed for his want of ha- 
tred to-wards the North. 
He called the North-ern 
sol-diers ''those peo-ple." 
Once, in the midst of a 
fierce bat-tie, he said to 
his son Rob-ert, who was 
brave-ly work-ing at a big 
gun, '' That's right, my 
son ; drive those peo-ple 
back." When told of 
Jack-son's fa-tal wound, 



his eye flashed fire and 
his face flushed as he 
thought of his great loss; 
but he qui-et-ly said : 

''Gen-er-al Jack-son's 
plans shall be car-ried 
out. Those peo-ple s/ia// 
be driv-en back to-day y 

The Rev. J. Wil-liam 
Jones says that one day, 
as he went up the street, 
he saw Gen-er-al Lee 
stand-ing talk-ing to a 
poor man. As the man 
walked a-way he said to 
him : " That is one of our 
old sol-diers, and add-ed, 
'he fought on the oth-er 
side ; but we must not 
think of that.'" 

Af-ter the war, when 
at the springs, a la-dy 
friend point-ed to a man 



98 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



near by and said to Gen- 
er-al Lee, " That is Gen- 

er-al , of the Fed-er- 

al Ar-my. He is hav-ing 
quite a dull time. He is 
here with his daugh-ters, 
but we do not care to 
have any-thing to do with 
them." 

" I am glad that you 
told me," said Gen-er-al 
Lee; "I will see at once 
that they have a bet-ter 
time." 

Af-ter that he took 
pains to make friends 
with "those peo-ple," and 
so set the fash-ion for oth- 
ers. Gen-er-al and 

his daugh-ters were soon 
hav-ino^ "a bet-ter time." 

Gen-er-al Lee was 
more than brave and ten- 



der ; he was meek, yet 
with a heart big e-nough 
to love ev-er-y one of his 
sol-diers, and great e- 
nough to plan long march- 
es and olo-ri-ous bat-ties. 

Af-ter the bat-tie of 
Get-tys-burg, one of his 
of-fi-cers rode up and told 
him that his men were for 
the most part killed or 
wound-ed. Lee shook 
hands with him and said: 
"All this has been my 
fault. It IS / who have 
lost this fight, and you 
must help me out as best 
you can." 

Not once did Lee cast 
the blame where it be- 
longed, but rode a-mong 
his men with such words 
of cheer as these : " All 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



99 



this will come riofht in the 
end." "We want all 
good and true men just 
now." "All good men 
must ral-ly." In this way 
he closed up his bro-ken 
lines, and showed such a 
brave front that Meade 
did not deem it well to 
re-new the fight. 

Once, when some 
friends were at his house 
in Rich-mond, the Rev. 

Dr. spoke in sharp 

terms of the way in which 
the North had used the 
South. Gen-er-al Lee 
said, " Well ! it mat-ters 
lit-tle what they may do 
to me ; I am old, and have 
but a short time to live at 
best." 



When Dr. 



got up 



to go home, Gen-er-al 
Lee went with him to the 
door and said to him, 
" Doc-tor, there is a good 
book which I read, and 
which you preach from, 
which says, ' Love your 
en-e-mies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them 
that hate you.' Do you 
think your speech just 
now quite in that spir-it.^" 

When Dr. made 

some ex-cuse, Gen-er-al 
Lee said : " I have fought 
the peo-ple of the North 
be-cause I thought that 
they were seek-ing to 
wrest from the South her 
rights. * * * I have 
nev-er seen the day when 
I did not pray for them." 

One day dur-ing the 



100 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



war, as they were look- 
ing at the hosts of the foe, 
one of his gen-er-als said, 
''I wish those peo-ple 
were all dead ! " Gen-er- 
al Lee, with that grace 
which was his own, said : 
''How can you say so? 
Now, I wish that they 
would all go home and 
leave us to do the same." 
At the close of the 
war, some of our best 
men went to seek homes 
in oth-er lands. This, 
Gen-er-al Lee deemed 
wronQ[-. He thouo^ht that 
the men of the South 
should stay at home and 
help to build up what 
had been laid waste by 
war. He wrote to one 
of his friends thus: "She 



(Virginia) has need for 
all of her sons, and can 
ill af-ford to spare you." 
Once more he wrote: 'T 
think the South needs the 
aid of her sons more than 
at any time of her his-to- 
ry. As you ask, I will 
state that I have no 
thought of leaving her." 

In a word, the wel-fare 
of the South was his 
chief con-cern. He kept 
in sight the hon-or of the 
South, but not that hate 
to the North which 
brought on-ly e-vil. 

A la-dy who had 
lost her hus-band in the 
war, and had brought her 
two sons to col-lege, 
spoke in sharp terms of 
the North to Gen-er-al 



THE LTFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



101 



Lee. He gen-tly said : 
*' Mad-am, do not train 
up your chil-dren as foes 
to the Gov-ern-ment of 
the U-ni-ted States. * * 
We are one coun-try 
now. Bring them up to 
be A-mer-i-cans." Thus 
did this grand man with 
a sad heart try to do his 
du-ty to the land of his 
birth. 

Though meek in the 
way I have told you, Gen- 
er-al Lee was at the same 
time too proud to take 
the aid which from trnie 
to time his friends would 
of-fer him. They knew 
that he had lost his "all" 
by the war, and felt that 
he should now be helped, 
so that he might pass his 



days with-out care. But 
his proud soul would take 
no aid. When, in a qui- 
et way, the trus-tees of 
the col-lege gave the 
house in which he lived 
to Mrs. Lee, and al-so 
the sum of three thou- 
sand dol-lars each year, 
he wrote, in Mrs. Lee's 
name, a kind but firm let- 
ter and de-clined the eift. 

Af-ter his death, they 
a-gain deed-ed the home 
to Mrs. Lee and sent her 
a check for a laro-e sum 
of mon-ey. But she, 
with the pride of her hus- 
band, sent back the check 
and would not let the 
funds of the col-leee be 
tak-en for her use. 

Gen-er-al Lee was al- 



W2 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



ways neat In his at-tire. 
This trait was the cause 
of much com-ment at the 
time of the "sur-ren-der." 

Gen-er-al Sharp, of the 
U. S. Ar-my, says: 

'' It was late in the day 
when it was known that 
Gen-er-al Lee had sent 
for Gen-er-al Grant to 
sur-ren-der to him. The 
sur-ren-der took place in 
the left-hand room of an 
old house which had a 
hall-way through it. In 
that room were a few of- 
fi-cers, of whom I was 
one. 

'*A short space a-part 
sat two men. The larg- 
er and tall-er of the two 
was the most strik-ing. 
His hair was as white as 



snow. There was not a 
speck up-on his coat ; not 
a spot up-on those gaunt- 
lets that he wore, which 
were as briorht and fair as 
a la-dy's glove. That was 
Rob-ert E. Lee. The 
oth-er was U-lys-ses S. 
Grant. His boots were 
full of mud ; one but-ton 
of his coat — that is, the 
but-ton-hole — was where 
it should not have been — ■ 
it had clear-ly gone a- 
stray ; and he wore no 
sword. 

*'The words that 
passed be-tween Lee and 
Grant were few. Gen- 
er-al Grant, while the men 
wrote out the terms of the 
sur-ren-der, said : 'Gen- 
er-al Lee, I have no 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



103 



sword; I rode all night/ 
And Gen-er-al Lee, with 
the pride which be-came 
him well, made no re-ply, 
but in a cold, for-mal 
way, bowed. 

"Then Gen-er-al 
Grant, in the at-tempt to 
be po-lite, said: T don't 
al-ways wear a sword.' 

'' Lee on-ly bowed a- 
gain. 

"Some one else then 
said: 'Gen-er-al Lee, 
what be-came of the white 
horse you rode in Mex-i- 
co ? He might not be 
dead yet ; he was not so 
old.' 

"Gen-er-al Lee a-gain 
bowed and said : ' I left 
him at the White House, 
on the Pa-mun-key riv-er. 



and I have not seen him 
since.' 

" Then there were a 
few words spo-ken in a 
low tone of voice be-tween 
Grant and Lee, which we 
could not hear. 

"At last, when the 
terms of sur-ren-der had 
all been signed, Lee a- 
rose, cold and proud, and 
bowed to each man on 
our side in the room. 
And then he went out 
and passed down that lit- 
tle square in front of the 
house, and mount-ed the 
gray horse that had car- 
ried him all o-ver Vir- 



gm-i-a. 



"When he had gone 
we learned what the low- 
toned words had meant. 



104 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Gen-er-al Grant turned 
and said: 'You go and 
ask each man that has 
three ra-tions to turn o- 
ver two of them, and send 
them on to Gen-er-al 
Lee. His men are on 
the point of star-va-tion.' " 

This calm, proud man 
was the same who a few 
hours be-fore had said : 
''Then there is noth-mg 
left me but to go and see 
Gen-er-al Grant, and I 
would rath-er die a thou- 
sand deaths." His su- 
perb, proud mien won 
from the foe on-ly praise 
and re-spect. 

I must here give you 
Gen-er-al Fitz-hugh 
Lee's pic-ture of the two 
gen-er-als at that time : 



" Grant, not yet for-ty- 
three years old, five feet 
eight inch-es tall, should- 
ers slight-ly stooped, hair 
and beard nut-brown, 
wear-ing a dark-blue 
blouse ; top-boots, pants 
in -side; dark thread 
gloves ; with-out spurs or 
sword, and no marks of 
rank save the straps of a 
gen-er-al. 

" Lee, fif-ty-eight years 
old, six feet tall, hair and 
beard sil-ver-gray; a 
hand-some u-ni-form of 
Con-fed-er-ate gray, but- 
toned to the throat, with 
three stars on col-lar, fine 
top-boots with spurs, new 
gaunt-lets, and at his side 
a splen-did sword. Lee 
wore his best in hon-or of 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



105 



the cause for which he 
fought." 

Gen-er-al Lee nev-er 
touched to-bac-co, bran- 
dy, or whis-key ; he was 
al-ways a so-ber man. 
Just as he was start-ing 
to the Mex-i-can war, a 
la-dy ni Vir-gin-i-a gave 
him a bot-tle of fine old 
whis-key, say-ing that he 
would be sure to need it, 
and that it was ver-y fine. 
On his re-turn home he 
sent the bot-tle, un-o- 
pened, to his friend to 
con-vince her that he 
could oret a-lonor with-out 
whis-key. 

Gen-er-al Lee once 
pro-posed to treat some 
of his of-fi-cers, say-ing, 
"I have a dem-i-john 



which I know is of the 
besty The dem-i-john 
was brought, and the cups 
held out for the treat were 
filled to the brim — not 
with old " Rye," but with 
fresh but-ter-milk, which 
a kind la-dy had sent him. 
The Gen-er-al seemed to 
en-joy the joke huge-ly. 
Be-ing once asked to 
a fine din-ner, he re-fused 
all the good dish-es, and 
said to the la-dy of the 
house : '' I can-not con- 
sent to be feast-incr while 
my poor men are near-ly 
starv-inof." 

It was his way to send 
any nice thing he might 
have to the sick and 
wound-ed in the hos-pi- 
tals. 



106 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



A la-dy re-mem-bers 
that when her broth-er 
was bacl-ly wound-ed 
near Pe-ters-burg, he was 
tak-en to a tent close by 
a hos-pi-tal, out of range 
of the fire of the foe. 
One day Gen-er-al Lee 
came rid-ing up and went 
in to see the wound-ed 
man. He took him gen- 
tly by the hand and told 
him to cheer up and get 
well ; that he had need of 
all brave men like him. 
Then he drew two fine 
peach-es from his pock-et 
and laid them on the side 
of the cot. 

Tears fell down the 
wound-ed man's pale 
cheeks as he heard these 
kind words and felt that 



his chief cared so much 
for him, a pri-vate sol-dier. 
Near the close of the 
war, when meat had be- 
come cjuite scarce, an 
aide of Pres-i-dent Da- 
vis being at head-quar- 
ters, was asked to dme. 
The meal spread on the 
rough board was corn- 
bread and a small piece 
of meat in a large mess 
of greens. The aide saw 
that the meat was not 
touched, though Gen-er- 
al Lee had asked all to 
take a piece of it. When 
the meal was o-ver, the 
aide asked one of the 
men why the meat was 
not eat-en. The re-ply 
was, that it had been 
loaned by a friend to cook 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



107 



with the greens, and had 
to be re-turned. 

It was Gen-er-al Lee's 
wish to fare just as his 
men did. When, dur-ing 
the siege of Pe-ters-burg, 
Mrs. Lee, fear-ing the 
great strain would be too 
much for him, begged him 
to take more care of his 
health, he wrote: *'But 
what care can a man give 
to him-self in time of 
war?" He then went on 
to say that he lived in a 
tent to be near his men 
and the of-fi-cers with 
whom he had to act; that 
he had been of- fere d 
rooms by kind friends, but 
that he could not turn 
their homes in-to a camp. 

An Eng-lish of-fi-cer 



wrote this ac-count of 
Lee's head-quar-ters in 
1862: "Lee's head-quar- 
ters I found were on-ly 
sev-en or eight pole-tents, 
with their backs to a stake- 
fence, while a lit-tle stream 
of good wa-ter flowed 
close by. In front of the 
tents were three wae-ons, 
and a num-ber of hors-es 
roamed o-ver the fields. 
No guards were seen near, 
and no crowd of aides 
swarmed a-bout. A large 
farm-house stood close 
by, which would have 
made a good home for the 
Gen-er-al, but Lee does 
not let his men rob or 
dis-turb the peo-ple, and 
likes to set them a eood 
ex-am-ple." 



108 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



It was in this way that 
he gained the great love 
of his men. 

A short time af-ter the 
sur-ren-der, two rag-ged 
Con-fed-er-ates, just from 
pris-on in the North, wait- 
ed up-on the Gen-er-al 
and said that there were 
six-ty oth-er fel-lows a- 
round the cor-ner who 
were too rag-ged to come. 
They had sent these two 
to of-fer their loved chief a 
home in the moun-tains of 
Vir-gin-i-a. "We will 
give you," said one of 
them, ''a good house and 
a fine farm. We boys will 
work for you and you shall 
nev-er want." The tears 
came to the eyes of Gen- 
er-al Lee as he told them 



that he must de-cline 
their gift. The of-fer of 
these men was but the 
feel-ing of the whole 
South. Though poor 
them-selves, they would 
have giv-en him hous-es, 
lands and mon-ey had he 
let them. This is a let- 
ter which he oot from one 
of his old sol-diers just 
af-ter the war : 
" Dear Gen-er-al : 

*' We have been fight- 
ing hard four years, and 
now the Yan-kees have 
got us in Lib-by Pris-on. 
They are treat-ing us aw- 
ful bad. The boys want 
you to get us out if you 
can ; but if you can't, just 
ride by the Lib-by and 
let us see you and give 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 



109 



you a cheer. We will all 
feel bet-ter for it." 

This let-ter touched the 
ten-der heart of Lee as 
well as this sto-ry which 
was told to him by Rev. 
J. Wil-liam Jones. Af- 
ter the war the lat-ter 
was rid-ino- a-lono- a 
road one day, when he 
saw a young man plow- 
mg in the field, guid-ing 
the plow with one hand, 
for on the oth-er side was 
an emp-ty sleeve. 

He soon saw that the 
man plow-ing was a sol- 
dier whom he had known, 
and stopped to speak to 
him. In fact, he had 
known the young man 
from boy-hood ; how, at 
the first tap of the drum 



he had gone to fioht for 
his na-tive State ; and how 
he had been maimed for 
life and gone home, to 
find that he must work 
with one arm for his 
bread, as his for-tune had 
been wrecked by the war. 
When he told the young- 
man how sad it made him 
to see him thus, the lat- 
ter said : " Oh ! it is all 
right. I thank God that 
I have 07te arm left, and 
can use it for those I 
love." 

When the Rev. Mr. 
Jones told this to Gen- 
er-al Lee, his face flushed 
and he said : '' What a 
no-ble fel-low ! But it is 
just like one of our sol- 
diers. The world has 



no 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



nev-er seen no-bler men 
than those who be-longed 
to the Ar-my of North- 
ern Vir-gin-i-a." 

But the real cor-ner- 
stone of Lee's Hfe was 
his trust in God. What- 
ev-er came to hmi he al- 
ways said, "God's will be 
done." 

One of his great-est 
o^riefs was the death of the 
wife of his son, Gen-er-al 
W. H. Fitz-hugh Lee. 
The lat-ter was wound-ed 
and tak-en pris-on-er. 
While in pris-on his love- 
ly wife died. In this bit- 
ter grief Gen-er-al Lee 
wrote to his son these 
words : 

'' My whole trust is in 
God, and I am read-y for 



what-ev-er He may or- 
dain." 

While the ar-my was 
at Mine Run, in No-vem- 
ber, 1863, and a bat-tie 
was at hand, Gen-er-al 
Lee, with a num-ber of 
of-fi-cers rid-ing down the 
line of bat-tie, came up- 
on a par-ty of sol-diers 
who were hold-ing a 
pray -er- meet -ing. The 
shoot-ing had be-gun a- 
long the lines, the can- 
nons were al-read-y roar- 
mg, and the mind and 
heart of the o-reat chief 
were on the bat-tie. Yet, 
as he saw these men bent 
in pray-er, he dis-mount- 
ed and joined in the sim- 
ple wor-ship. So these 
hum-ble men led the de- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Ill 



vo-tions of their loved 
Gen-er-al. 

One day in 1865, while 
rid-ino^ a-lonor the lines 
with his staff, Gen-er-al 
Lee met the Rev. J. Wil- 
liam Jones, who was giv- 
ing tracts to the men in 
the trench -es. He at 
once remed m his horse 
and spoke to this ''man of 
God," while the of-fi-cers 
crowd-ed a-round. 

Gen-er-al Lee asked if 
he ev-er had calls for 
pray-er-books, and said 
that if he would come to 
his head-quar-ters he 
would give him some — 
that a friend m Rich-mond 
had giv-en him a new 
book ; and up-on his say- 
ing that he would give his 



old one, that he had used 
ev-er since the Mex-i-can 
war, to some sol-dier, the 
friend had of-fered him a 
doz-en new books for the 
old one. He had, of 
course, tak-en so grand 
an of-fer and now had 
twelve, in place of one, to 
give a-way. 

When the Rev. Mr. 
Jones called, Gen-er-al 
Lee had gone out, but 
had left the books with 
one of his staff for Mr. 
Jones. He had writ-ten 
on the fly-leaf of each 
book, " Pre-sent-ed by R. 
E. Lee." 

We are sure that if 
an-y of these books were 
saved a-mid the din and 
stress of w^ar, that they are 



11^ 



THE LIFB OF GUN. ROBERT B. LEE. 



now much prized by those 
who own them. 

These are some of the 
words which he would 
use when his ar-my had 
gained the day : " Thanks 
be to God." "God has 
a-gain crowned the val-or 
of our troops with suc- 
cess." A-gain, up-on a 
fast-clay, he said in an or- 
der, " Sol-diers ! let us 
hum-ble our -selves be- 
fore the Lord our God, 
ask-ing, through Christ, 
the for-oive-ness of our 
sins." 

With the close of the 
war, the pi-e-ty of this 
great man seemed to in- 
crease. His seat at 
church was al-ways filled 
un-less he was kept a- 



way by sick-ness, and he 
was ev-er read-y for good 
works. He did not find 
fault with preach-ers, as 
so man-y do, but was 
most fond of those who 
were sim-ple and true to 
the teach-ings of the Bi- 
ble. 

Once he said to a 
friend : '' Do you think 
that it would be an-y harm 

for me to hint to Mr. 

that we would be glad if 
he made his morn-ino- 
pray-ers a lit-tle short .^ 
You know our friend 
makes his pray-er too 
long. He prays for the 
Jews, the Turks, and the 
heath-en, and runs in-to 
the hour for our Col-lege 
rec-i-ta-tions. Would it 




The Lee Monument Unveiled. 

Richmond, Va., May 29th, 1890. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



113 



be wrong for me to hint 



to Mr. 



that he con- 



fine his morn -nig pray-ers 
to us poor sin-ners at the 
Col-lege, and pray for the 
Turks, the Jews, the Chi- 
nese, and oth-er heath-en 
some oth-er tmie?" 

Gen-er-al Lee was a 
con-stant read-er of the 
Bi-ble. One of his 
friends re-lates that, as he 
watched be-sicle his bod-y 
the day af-ter death, he 
picked up from the ta-ble 
a well-worn pock-et Bi- 
ble, in which was writ-ten 
in his own hand " R. E. 
Lee, Lieu-ten-ant-Col-o- 
nel of U. S. Ar-my." 
This lit-tle book had 
been the light of his path- 
way through man-y tri-als. 



Gen-er-al Lee gave 
free-ly of his small means 
to his church and the 
poor. At the ves-try 
meet-ing, which took 
place the e-ven-ing of his 
ill-ness, fif-ty-five dol-lars 
were lack-ing for the pay 
of the pas-tor. Though 
he had be-fore g-iv-en his 
share, he now said in a 
low voice, 'T will give the 
sum." These were the 
last words he spoke to the 
meet-ing, and this giv-ing 
was his last pub-lie act. 

His love for his wife 
and chil-dren is shown 
by the ten-der, lov-ing 
let-ters he wrote when a- 
way from them. Dur-ing 
the Civ-il War his anx-i- 
e-ty for them was great. 



114 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



Just be-fore the North- 
ern ar-my crossed the Po- 
to-mac, in 1861, Mrs. Lee 
left her beau-ti-ful home, 
Ar-ling-ton, and came 
south. Ar-ling-ton was 
at once seized by the U-ni- 
ted States Gov-ern-ment, 
and the grounds tak-en as 
a bur-i-al-place for the 
U-ni-ted States sol-diers. 

Mrs. Lee and her 
daugh-ters then sought a 
home at the ''White 
House," on the Pa-mun- 
key riv-er, where Wash- 
ing-ton had mar-ried the 
'' Wid-ow Cus-tis," and 
which had been left by 
Mr. Cus-tis to one of 
Gen-er-al Lee's sons. 
But they were soon driv- 
en from there by the hosts 



of Mc-Clel-lan, and the 
house was burned to the 
ground. At last they 
found a home in Rich- 
mond, where they Hved 
un-til the close of the 
war. 

Mrs. Lee's health had 
failed, but the most of her 
best hours were spent in 
knit-ting socks for the 
poor bare-foot-ed sol- 
diers of the South. Her 
brave daugh-ters al-so 
knit socks and nursed the 
sick and wound-ed sol- 
diers. Those were sad 
times, and the Lee fam- 
i-ly suf-fered most heav- 
i-ly. 

The death of her no- 
ble hus-band was a great 
shock to Mrs. Lee, who 



THB LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



115 



was then not a-ble to 
walk with-out aid. She 
did not sur-vive him 
man-y years, and now 
rests be-side hmi in the 
Col-lege chap-el at Lex- 
ino-ton. Their dau^h- 
ter Ag-nes, who died 
short-ly af-ter her fa-ther, 
is bur-ied in the same sa- 
cred place. 

Close by is the grave 
of Stone-wall Jack-son. 
How meet that these two 
friends and he-roes should 
rest so near each oth-er ! 

The blue moun-tains of 
their loved Vir-gin-i-a 



keep ''watch and ward " o- 
ver their graves ; and each 
year, pil-grims from ev- 
er-y part of the land come 
to vis-it their tombs and 
place fresh flow-ers and 
green wreaths up-on 
them. 

Gen-er-al Cus-tis Lee 
was made Pres-i-dent of 
the Col-lege in his fa- 
ther's place. The Col- 
lege is now called the 
'' Wash-ing-ton and Lee 
U - n i - V e r - s i- 1}^" af-ter 
Wash-ing-ton and Lee, the 
two great-est names in the 
his-to-ry of the coun-try. 



Con'-course, a crowd of peo-ple. 

Cou'-ri-er (koo'-ri-er), a man who car-ries an or-der for an 
of-fi-cer. 

Fir-grim, a trav-el-er to ho-ly pla-ces. 



U6 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A PEOPLES HERO. 



Af-TER the death of 
Gen-er-al Lee, man-y 
speech-es were made in 
his praise, and man-y let- 
ters writ-ten tell-ino^ of the 
sor-row of his friends. 
These let-ters came not 
on-ly from the South, but 
from the North, and oth- 
er lands. 

The New York Sun 
thus clos-es its no-tice : 

"His death will a-wa- 
ken great grief through 
the South, and man-y 
peo-ple in the North will 
drop a tear of sor-row on 
his bier. * * * j^ 



Gen-er-al Lee, an a-ble 
sol-dier, a sin-cere Chris- 
tian, and an hon-est man 
has been tak-en from 
earth." 

The New York Her- 
a/of said these kind words 
of him : 

" In a qui-et au-tumn 
morn-ing, in the land he 
loved so well, and, as he 
held, he had served so 
faith-ful-ly, the spir-it of 
Rob-ert E. Lee left the 
clay which it had so much 
en-no-bled, and trav-eled 
out of this world in-to the 
great and un-known land. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



117 



* 



* 



* 



Not to the 
South-ern peo-ple a-lone 
shall be lim-it-ed the trib- 
ute of a tear o-ver the 
dead Vir-gin-i-an. Here 
in the North, for-oret-tinor 
that the time was when 
the sword of Rob-ert E. 
Lee was drawn a-gainst 
us, we have long since 
ceased to look up-on him 
as the Con-fed-er-ate 
lead-er, but have claimed 
him as one of our-selves ; 
for Rob-ert Ed-ward Lee 
was an A-mer-i-can, and 
the great na-tion which 
gave hmi birth would to- 
day be un-wor-thy of such 
a son if she looked up-on 
him light-ly." 

The Pall Mall Ga-zette, 
Lon-don, Eng-land, said: 



"The news from A- 
mer-i-ca, that Gen-er-al 
Rob-ert E. Lee is dead, 
will be re-ceived with 
great sor-row by man-y 
in this coun-try, as well 
as by his fel-low-sol-diers 
in A-mer-i-ca. 

'' It is but a few years 
since Rob-ert E. Lee 
ranked a-mong the great 
men of his time. He 
was the a-ble sol-dier of 
the South-ern Con-fed - 
er-a-cy, the lead-er who 
twice threat-ened, by the 
cap-ture of Wash-ing-ton, 
to turn the tide of suc- 
cess and cause a rev-o-lu- 
tion which would have 
changed the des-ti-ny of 
the U-ni-ted States." 

The Lon-don Staitd- 



118 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



ard gave this tri-bute to 
Lee : 

" A coun-try which has 
giv-en birth to men hke 
him, and those who fol- 
lowed him, may look the 
chiv-al-ry of Eu-rope in 
the face with-out shame ; 
for the lands of Sid-ney 
and of Bay-ard nev-er 
brought forth a no-bler 
sol-dier, gen-tle-man and 
Chris-tian, than Rob-ert 
E. Lee." 

He was called ''the 
great cap-tain of his age" 
— "the great gen-er-al of 
the Re-bel-lion " — " a 
good knight, no-ble of 
heart and strong of pur- 
pose, and both a sol-dier 
and a gen-tle-man." 

These beau-ti-ful 



words were said of him 
in a speech soon af-ter 
his death : 

'* Gen-er-al Lee's fame 
is not bound-ed by the 
lim-its of the South, nor 
by the con-ti-nent. I re- 
joice that the South gave 
him birth. I re-joice that 
the South will hold his 
ash-es. But his fame be- 
longs to the hu-man race. 
Wash -ing- ton, too, was 
born in the South and 
sleeps in the South, but 
his fame be-longs to man- 
kind. We place the name 
of Lee by that of Wash- 
ing-ton. They both be- 
long to the world. 

"There is one thing 
more I wish to say be-fore 
I take my seat. Gen-er- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



119 



al Lee's fame ought to 
rest on the true base. He 
did not draw his sword 
in the cause of sla-ver-y — 
he did not seek to o-ver- 
throw the Gov-ern-ment 
of the U-ni-ted States. 
He drew it in the de-fense 
of con-sti-tu-tion-al Hb- 
.er-ty. That cause is not 
dead, but will live for-ev- 
er. 

Gen-er-al W. Pres-ton 
spoke of him thus : 

" I knew him first when 
he was a cap-tain. * * 
At that time, Gen-er-al 
Scott had fixed up-on Gen- 
er-al Lee as the man who 
would make his mark if 
ev-er the coun-try need- 
ed his ser-vi-ces. He 
nev-er drank, he nev-er 



swore an oath, but there 
was nev-er a dis-pute a- 
mong gen-tle-men that his 
voice was not more po- 
tent than an-y oth-er; his 
rare calm-ness and die- 
ni-ty were a-bove all. 
When the war came on, 
he fol-lowed his na-tive 
State, Vir-gin-i-a. * * 
Scott main-tained that 
Lee was the great-est sol- 
dier in the ar-my. * * 
I re-mem-ber when Scott 
made use of these words : 
' I tell you one thing, if 
I was on my death-bed, 
and knew that a bat-tie 
was to be fought for my 
coun-try, and the Pres-i- 
dent was to say to me, 
'Scott who shall com- 
mand?' I tell you that, 



120 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



with my dy-ing breath, I 
should say Rob-ert Lee. 
No-bod-y but Rob-ert 
Lee ! Rob-ert Lee and 
no-bod-y but Lee ! " 

These ex-tracts would 
not be com-plete with-out 
this one, bear-ing up-on 
his life as a teacher : 

'' And it is an hon-or 
for all the col-leg-es of 
the South, and for all our 
schools, that this pure 
and bright name is joined 
by the will of him that 
bore it with the cause of 
ed-u-ca-tion. We think 
that so long as the name 
of Lee is loved a-monor 
us, our South-ern teach- 
ers may re-joice and grow 
strong-er in their work, 
when they re-mem-ber 



that he was one of their 
num-ber, and that his 
great heart, that had so 
brave-ly borne the for- 
tunes of an em-pire, bore 
al-so, a-mid its lat-est as- 
pi-ra-tions, the in-ter-ests 
and hopes of the teach- 
er. 

But the great-est hon- 
or ev-er paid to our he-ro 
was when the bronze 
stat-ue by Mer-ci-e 
(Mur-se~a) was un-veiled 
in Rich-mond. 

Short-ly af-ter the death 
of Gen-er-al Lee, a few 
la-dies met in a par-lor in 
Rich-mond and formed a 
so-ci-e-ty known as the 
La-dies' Lee Mon-u-ment 
As-so-ci-a-tion. Their 
plan was to e-rect a mon- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



121 



u-ment in Rich-mond to 
the mem-o-ry of the great 
chief, and to col-lect funds 
for the same from the en- 
tire South. They be-gan 
at once their la-bor of 
love. Though the South 
was at that time ver-y 
poor, the peo-ple gave 
glacl-ly of their small 
means, un-til, at last, the 
La -dies' As-so-ci-a-tion 
had col-lect-ed o-ver fif- 
teen thou-sand dol-lars. 

Al-most at the same 
time an-oth-er ''Lee 
Mon-u-ment As-so-ci-a- 
tion " was formed of the 
old sol-diers and sail-ors 
of the Con-fed-er-a-cy, 
which had Gen-er-al Ju- 
bal A. Ear-ly for its pres- 
i-dent. The la- dies of 



the Hol-ly-wood Me-mo- 
ri-al As-so-ci-a-tion were 
asked to aid, and they 
proved great work-ers in 
the cause. 

I can-not tell you the 
man-y ways in which 
these and oth-er so-ci-e- 
ties worked to raise the 
mon-ey, but at last there 
was e-nough in the treas- 
u-ry to e-rect the stat-ue. 

In the mean-time Gen- 
er-al Fitz-hugh Lee was 
made Gov-ern-or of Vir- 
gin-i-a, and he at once 
be-gan to take meas-ures 
to bring a-bout the e-rec- 
tion of the mon-u-ment. 
By his ef-forts a ''Board 
of Man-a-gers " was ap- 
point-ed, whose work was 
to choose the de-sign, the 



122 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



ar-tist, and the site for the 
mon-u-ment. The Al- 
len lot, in the west-ern 
part of the cit-y, was at last 
cho-sen for the site, and 
was ac-cept-ed as the gift 
of Mr. Ot-way Al-len, 
June 18th, 1887. It was 
then the du-ty of the 
Board to find a sculp-tor 
wor-thy of their choice. 
Af-ter man-y tri-als, it 
se-lect-ed Mon-sieur 
Mer-cie, a French-man, 
who is both a paint-er and 
a sculp-tor of note. In 
the sum-mer of 1887, the 
best pho- to -graphs of 
Gen-er-al Lee, as well as 
one of his shoes and his 
u-ni-form, were sent to the 
sculp-tor. A small spur, 
such as Gen-er-al Lee 



wore, was al-so tak-en o- 
ver to France by Miss 
Ran-dolph, who was one 
of the Board of Man-a- 
gers. Mon-sieur Mer- 
cie told her that when 
Gen-er-al Lee's shoe was 
sent to him, there was 
no one in his house-hold 
with a foot small e-nough 
to wear it but his twelve- 
year-old son. 

In work-ing out the 
like-ness to Gen-er-al 
Lee, Mon-sieur Mer-cie 
had the good for-tune to 
have Miss Ma-ry Lee, 
who was then in Par-is, 
as a crit-ic of his work. 

On the 27th of Oc-to- 
ber, 188 7, the cor-ner- 
stone was laid with splen- 
did rites, and on the 3rd 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



123 



of May, 1890, the stat-ue 
reached Rich-mond by 
way of New York. It 
was packed in three 
box-es. On the 7th of 
May each box was placed 
in a wag-on, from which 
waved the flags of Vir- 
gin -i -a and the Con- 
fed-er-a-cy. Then one 
wag -on was drawn by 
men of the cit-y, one by 
old sol-diers, and one by 
wom-en and orirls — the 
fine la-dy stand-ing by the 
side of her hum-bler sis- 
ter. They went on 
through the cit-y, pull- 
ing the ropes a-mid the 
cheers of twen-ty thou- 
sand peo-ple, un-til they 
came to the spot where 
the stat-ue was to stand. 



Such was their love for 
Lee! 

The mon-u-ment in all 
is a-bout six-ty-one feet 
in height, and cost six-ty- 
five thou -sand dol-lars. 
It shows the Gen-er-al 
mount-ed up-on his war- 
horse Trav-el-er. His 
feet touch the stir-rups 
light-ly, af-ter the man-ner 
of the south-ern horse- 
men. He is clad in a 
plain u-ni-form. A sash 
girds his waist, and the 
sword of a cav-al-ry of-fi- 
cer hangs from his side. 
He holds the bri-dle reins 
in his left hand, while in 
his right is his hat, which 
he grasps as if he had 
just tak-en it off to ac- 
knowledge the cheers of 



124 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



his men, through whose 
ranks we may sup-pose 
him to be pass-ing. 

The day at last fixed 
up-on for un-vell-ing the 
stat-ue was Fri-day, May 
29th, 1890. 

From the north, south, 
east and west peo-ple 
thronged to do hon-or to 
the great chief. 

All the cit-y was then 
think-ing of one man — 
Lee, just as, twen-ty-five 
years be-fore, all their 
hopes had turned to him. 

On that day the sun 
rose bright, and the peo- 
ple with it. Soon, the 
noise of tramp-ing feet and 
the tap of the drum were 
heard, and ere long the 
glit-ter of bay-o-nets, the 



flash-ing of sa-bers and 
the wav-ing of flags told 
that the line was form-ing. 
The streets were crowd- 
ed and rang with cheers 
as some not-ed sol-dier 
rode by or an old Con- 
fed-er-ate flag was waved. 
At last the long line 
was formed, and moved 
at noon from Broad street. 
Ev-er-y win-dow, door- 
way, and e-ven the house- 
tops a-long the line of 
march, were filled with 
folks ea-ger to see the 
great pa-rade, which 
stretched through the 
streets four miles in mov- 



me mass. 



Gen-er-al Fitz-hugh 
Lee, neph-ew of the he- 
ro, who had been one 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



of his most dar-ing cav- 
al-ry gen-er-als dur-ing 
the war, and who had for- 
mer-ly been Gov-ern-or 
of Vir-gui-i-a, was chief 
mar-shal of the pa-rade. 
Cheer af-ter cheer a-rose 
as he rode by, wear-ing 
the slouch hat of a cav- 
al-ry-man. ''Our Fitz," 
as his men loved to call 
him, "was him -self a- 



o^am. 



The guests rode in o- 
pen car-riag-es, and a- 
mong them were Miss-es 
Ma-ry and Mil-dred Lee, 
and Gen-er-al W. H. 
Fitz-hugh Lee, wife and 
sons. They were fol- 
lowed by band af-ter band 
of vol-un-teer troops from 
all the South-ern States, 



in the fol-low-inor or-der : 
South Car-o-li-na, North 
Car-o-li-na, Mis -sis -sip- 
pi, Tex-as, Ma-ry-land, 
Dis-trict of Co-lum-bia, 
Al-a-bam-a, West Vir- 
gin-i-a and Vir-gin-i-a. 
Be-hind these marched 
the vet-er-ans — men who 
had fought in the late 
war, and who came from 
all parts of the South. 
Brave men were there 
from Tex-as, the far-off 
'' Lone Star State." With 
the vet-er-an troops from 
Lou-is-i-an-a was ''the 
old war-horse" Lone- 
street, who had led the 
First Corps of the ar-my 
of North-ern Vir-gin-i-a; 
and at the head of the 
Geor-gi-a men was the 



126 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



tried and true Gor-don. 
Gal-lant sons of Flor-I-da, 
Mis-sis-sip-pi and Al-a- 
bam-a, were in line with 
the brave men of North 
and South Car-o-H-na. 
Vet-er-ans from Ar-kan- 
sas, Ten-nes-see, Ken- 
tuck-y, Ma-ry-land, West 
Vir-gin-i-a and Vir-gin- 
i-a were al-so there to hon- 
or the mem-o-ry of their 
lead-er. 

When-ev-er and where- 
ev-er these vet-er-ans were 
seen, they were greet-ed 
with hear-ty cheers. 
Some wore their old grey 
u-ni-forms, all of which 
were fad-ed and worn, 
and man-y full of bul-let- 
holes. Here and there 
a-long the line could be 



seen the old and tat-tered 
flaos of the Con-fed-er- 
a-cy. 

Af-ter the vet-er-ans 
came the civ-ic or-clers in 
Rich-mond and the stu- 
dents of Wash-inor-ton 
and Lee U-ni-ver-si-ty. 

The cross-bars and bat- 
tle fla^s of the Con-fed- 
er-a-cy float-ed in the 
breeze by the side of the 
stars and stripes, which 
meant that the peo-ple of 
the U-ni-ted States were 
a-gain one na-tion. 

As the line moved a- 
lonor the streets decked 
with float-ing flags and 
gay bunt-ing, the sound 
of the man-y feet was 
lost in loud and hear-ty 
cheers that a-rose from 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 



127 



doors, house-tops and 
crowd-ed side-walks. 

At last the throng at 
the grand-stand heard the 
roll of the drum and the 
near-ing din of the pa- 
rade, and soon the bright 
line swept in-to view. 
The crowd was so dense 
that per -sons on the 
grand-stand could not be 
seen by those on the 
ground. Ring-ing cheers 
a-rose, not once, but time 
and time a-gain, as the 
great men took their pla- 
ces on the stand, and it 
was not un-til 3:45 o'clock 
P. M. that Gov-ern-or 
Mc-Kin-ney stepped for- 
ward to make the o-pen- 
ing speech. 

Then there was a pray- 



er by Rev. Dr. Min-ni- 
ge-rode, who had been 
rec-tor of St. Paul's 
church dur-ing the war, 
at which church Gen-er- 
al Lee wor-shipped when 
in Rich-mond. 

When the pray-er end- 
ed, the band played Dix- 
ie, the war-song of the 
South, un-der whose 
strains the old sol-diers 
had so of-ten thrilled as 
they marched in-to bat- 
tle. Then there was a 
great noise which at last 
wore it-self a-way, and 
Gen-er-al Ear-ly rose and 
spoke a few words of 
cheer to the old sol-diers. 

The speech of the day 
was made by Col-o-nel 
Ar-cher An-der-son, who 



\, 



128 



THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 



eave scene af-ter scene in 
the life of Gen-er-al Lee 
with great force and clear- 
ness. A-gain the grand 
he-ro seemed to live and 
act in their midst — to lead 
them on to vic-to-ry or to 
teach them how to bear 
de-feat. 

When the speak-er 
took his seat, a- mid 
cheers, Gen-er-al Jo-seph 
E. John-ston a-rose and 
with two old sol-diers 
marched to the base of 
the mon-u-ment. Each 
of the sol-diers car-ried a 
bat-tie flag, tat-tered and 
torn by shot and shell. 
When the mon-u-ment 
was reached, Gen-er-al 
John-ston pulled the rope 
and one part of the veil 



fell off. An-oth-er pull 
brought off the rest of the 
veil, and the splen-did 
stat-ue was in plain view 
of the ea-ger mul-ti-tude. 
A score of old sol-diers 
mount-ed its base and 
waved their old Con-fed- 
er-ate flags in loy-al ea- 
ger love for their dead 
chief. Migh-ty cheers 
broke from the watch-ing 
throng, like the wild 
break-mg of a storm, but 
at last they died a-way. 

Up there, a-gainst the 
blue sky, kissed by the 
rays of the set-ting sun, 
in the midst of his own 
peo-ple, were the match- 
less face and form of Lee. 

Some wept, oth-ers 
shout-ed, but all thanked 



THE LIFE OF GEN. EGBERT E. LEE. 



129 



God that He had giv-en 
to A-mer-i-ca such a son 
as Lee. 

Nev-er had men looked 
on such a scene be-fore. 
At last the crowd went 
slow-ly a-way, leav-ing 
their he-ro in bronze to 
keep a si-lent watch o-ver 
the cit-y he loved so well. 
Be-neath him were the 
homes of his friends, and 
be-yond, in "Hol-ly- 
wood" and "Oak-wood," 
Rich-mond's "cit-ies of 



the dead," were the graves 
of his fal-len he-roes, and 
far a-way, a-cross and a- 
down the James, were his 
bat-tie-fields. 

As time rolls on, stat- 
ue and cit-y will pass a- 
way. But the name and 
vir-tues of Rob-ert E. 
Lee will nev-er die, for 
they are writ-ten in the 
his-to-ry of his coun-try 
and in the Book of Life, 
and will live be-yond the 
shores of Tmie. 



Mon-sieur (mos-yurO, a French word for Mr. 

Sin-cere', hon-est. 

Ac-knowl-edge (ak-nor-eg), to own a gift or fa-vor. 

Po'-tent, strong, hav-ing pow-er. 

Sid'-ney, an Eng-lish pa-tri-ot. 

Bay-ard (ba'-yar'), a French he-ro. 

Pa'-tri-ot, one who loves his coun-try. 



GEN. R. E. LEE'S 
FAREWELL ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS. 



Headquarters Army Northern Virginia, 

Appomattox C. H., April lo, 1865. 
General Orders Ho. 9. 

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed 
courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has 
been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. 

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought bat- 
tles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have con- 
sented to this result from no distrust of them ; but feeling that 
valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that would com- 
pensate for the loss that must have attended a continuance of the 
contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose 
past services have endeared them to their countrymen. 

By the terms of the Agreement, Officers and men can return 
to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with 
you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty 
faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God 
will extend to you His blessing and protection. With an 
unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your 
Country and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous 
consideration for myself, I bid you all an Affectionate Farewell. 




IN COURSE OF PREPARATION: 



THE LIFE OF 



Gen'l T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson, 

FOR CHILDREN. 

By Mrs. MARY L WILLIAMSON. 



This book will be gotten up in the same 
style as Mrs. Williamson's Life of GenT 
Robert E. Lee, and will be followed by 
extended sketches of other great men of 
the South, making a 



Library of SoLitherm Heroes. 



^ilPlMl mflllPiilil- liil^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




008 857 263 4 







